To Be
by twifantasy
Summary: Nessie was not the only of her kind. My parents were just like Edward and Bella, and I was a lot like Nessie. Leah and Joel's son had imprinted on mewheni was just a baby, and my life was more and more like Nessie's everyday. My name is Zemati, and I am a vampire human hybrid. Sequel to Leah's Happily Ever After, Bet Me, That Girl, How to Deal, Patches of Blue, and As it Goes.
1. Chapter 1

To Be

**CHAPTER ONE**

My parents weren't the first of their kind, but they sure were close. My name is Zemati, and I am a vampire human half breed. I live in Forks, Washington with my family. My father's name is Sanjiv, and my mother's name is Amari. While my mother was still human, and my father a vampire, they fell in love, and had me. They had to seek out the help of the Cullens when my mother was pregnant, because everyone they asked said they were the only ones who could help her possibly survive. Originally we are from Dapoli, India. Though, after my birth, we had come to America. My grandfather Jai, and my grandmother Selena, as well as my Aunt Kahini and Uncle Mayur had all braved an airplane ride to Washington.

Perhaps I should start at the beginning. Several years before my birth, and about five after the birth of Renesmee, the Volturi had called all of the vampires of the world to Volterra. It had been a gathering, and over two thousand vampires had been there. Aro had insisted on every vampire there introducing themselves in front of the others. It was in that way that my family had first heard about the Cullens. They had decided to try the vegetarian lifestyle, and after a few years of struggling, they had begun to master it. It wasn't long before my father had met my mother, a young Indian girl, while working at a new job he had just decided to take. She was his assistant. He at that time had been pretending to be around age twenty-five, even though he had been bitten when he was twenty. The attraction between my mother and my father was instant. She was a smart girl, and had almost immediately detected that there was something strange about my father. It took her a few weeks to figure it out, but she eventually confronted him about his strange eye color and pale skin. They had fallen in love rapidly, and about two years after first meeting, I had been born.

On my first fateful trip to America, my life had changed forever.

First though, it is important to note the changes that had happened to the supernatural world in La Push and Forks Washington.

The Cullens had moved away several years ago. They had stayed far too long, and were now living in Cleveland, Ohio. They had expanded their numbers. Just about a year after Nessie had been born, they had found a boy have beaten to death in the middle of the woods. His name was Connor. A year after his transformation, he had started attending Forks High School, with Renesmee. There he had met a girl named Julia Bird. Much like Edward and Bella, and my parents for that matter, they had fallen in love. The Volturi had found out about Julia, and had given them an ultimatum to change her, or kill her. Before they did either, the Volturi attacked Julia, Connor, and finally Renesmee. After being married, the Cullens changed Julia. While Connor and Julia were on their honeymoon, the Cullens had been attacked by an army of newborns while they were on a hunting trip. No one had been hurt, but every one of the newborns had been slaughtered. Two vampires, Zach and Andrea, had refused to fight, and they had been spared. After a few months with the Denali's Zach and Andrea had joined the Cullens for good. They were now a very large family, but a very strong one as well.

Sam and Emily had been married. They had four children together. Their names were Jennifer, Brandon, Allison, and Ryan. Sam had stopped shifting about six years ago, and his daughter Jennifer, had started shifting about four years ago. At the same time that she had started shifting, so had a boy named Liam Kite. Liam was her age. Jennifer and Liam had imprinted on each other. Liam's mother was named Jackie, and his father had been a secret for a long time. Just a few months after he first started shifting though, Jackie told the family that his father was Harry Clearwater. Harry had had an affair with Jackie when she was only in High School. He had been with her only three days before his death. Though the news had come as a shock to the family, Sue had known about the affair. She knew even before Harry died. Jackie was ashamed, but as a family, we moved on. Liam and Jenny were not engaged as of current. They were waiting until they were a little older, and just enjoying being together right now.

Leah had finally found love. A short while after Nessie had been born, a new, very strange wolf had shifted. His name was Joel, and he was Jacob's cousin. He was about five years older than Jacob. He had shifted so late because his father was Billy's younger brother. Billy's younger brother had died before Jacob's sisters had even been born, and Jacob had never met him. No one knew that he had impregnated a girl from outside the reservation before his death. He may not have even known. Leah and Joel had been married, and had four children named Nick, Alexis, Cole, and Paige. Nick had become a wolf a few months before Jenny did, and right before his parents had stopped shifting. On my first trip to America, Nick had imprinted on me. I had never known life without Nick. I couldn't remember him not being there. Though I was only really eight years old, I was about the size of a sixteen year old. My growth rate had slowed, and Nick had been there through all of it. He was the one thing I was sure about. I loved that boy, with all of my heart.

Jared and Kim had been married, and had two children named David and Kelsey. Paul and Rachel had also been married and had children named Kristin and Joshua. Shortly after Joel changed, another female, named Brooke had changed. She was Jared's little sister, and she and Embry had imprinted on each other. They had twins named Madison and Marcus. They also had a younger daughter named Bridgette. Seth Clearwater had imprinted on a girl named Abbey nine years ago. They were now happily married with twins whose names were Elizabeth Grace and Evan Mitchell. At the same time Bridgette was born, Seth and Abbey also had another daughter named Aubrey. A few months after Brooke had changed, twin girls named Lauren and Kaylie had also changed into wolves. Collin and Brady, the ones who used to be the 'kids' of the pack, had imprinted on these girls. And you guessed it, at the same time that they imprinted on them. Collin and Kaylie had a little girl named Anna Nicole, and Lauren and Brady had a little boy named Tyler Jonathon. Lauren and Brady had also had a child a few months ago, named Sydney. Collin and Kaylie also had a child during that baby spurt, and his name was Mitchell. Quil and Claire were married, and now have twins named Jason and Jayna.

Lauren and Kaylie also have a younger brother whose name is Bryce. Bryce had imprinted on Jacob and Nessie's daughter, Eila. Eila and her brother Cade grew more quickly than human children, but not as quickly as me or Nessie had. I had outgrown both Eila and Cade by my second birthday. I was intellectually ahead of them before I was even one, and they were intellectually ahead of the other kids that were their size. My brain was always racing ahead of my body.

When the Volturi had first come to Washington, back when Nessie was just a little girl, there had been a major spurt of young boys turning into wolves. Their names were Caleb, Jeremy, Matt, Lucas, Nathan, Kyle, and Wyatt. They were all a few years older than Bryce.

If this wasn't enough, there was still more to come. Just a few months after the Cullens left Forks; the wolf world in La Push had been shaken up and almost destroyed. One night, Sam had found something mysterious in the woods. It had been a pair of bare human footprints just suddenly disappearing. Sam hadn't recognized the scent of these footprints, and had immediately called the rest of the wolves. They were gone for several hours, and Nessie eventually got worried and called Julia. You see, Julia has the talent of being able to find people. They work sort of like Alice's visions, only she can see all types of people, including werewolves. Julia searched for the wolves, and found them.

What she saw was horrendous. They had all been viciously attacked, and were left broken, bruised, and bleeding. We hadn't known much then, but in the months that had followed that, we soon discovered more about these disappearing footprints. You see, the things that had attacked the wolves had been large, super natural eagles. This was all that the wolves had been able to capture about these things while they had been being attacked. But with this bit of information, we had set to work.

It had taken several weeks and almost nonstop work to finally reach a conclusion about these things, but the Cullens had found a legend concerning people that turned into eagles. The Achomawi Indians of Southern Oregon were the only culture that we could find that had a legend remotely relating to humans shape-shifting.

After a series of certain events, the leader of these eagles had come into our presence. He had explained to us about how he had been excluded from his family, and practically exiled from his community. The only reservation for Achomawi Indians was called Alturas, and was located near the Oregon state border in Northeastern California. Their leader's name was Dan, and he had told all the wolves about how he had ordered the others to attack out of pure fear, and intimidation; I had been inside with all of the wolves' kids. He was afraid of the wolves. He had apologized, and begged for their forgiveness.

Being the people that they were, not only had the wolves forgiven the eagles almost immediately, they had asked Dan to tell them about the rest of the eagles. Dan explained to them about how some of the eagles were very close to losing themselves. When you stayed eagles for as long as they did, he told us, it was sometimes hard to remember that somewhere inside of you was a real person. He told the wolves that there were about eight girls, and ten guys. After about an hour of talking with Dan, Sam had asked him to bring the rest of the eagles back to meet them. Sam had known that these people had nowhere to go, and Sam wasn't the type of guy who just let someone who needed help walk away.

After much arguing, Dan had agreed to bring the others back. Dan was feeling pretty guilty at that time, and I had known that he must feel very undeserving of this act of generosity. No matter what he felt though, about an hour later, there were eighteen young men and woman standing in front of us.

That's when all hell broke loose. The weirdest of the weird things had happened. Caleb, Jeremy, Matt, Lucas, Nathan, Kyle, and Wyatt had imprinted on Mikayla, Natalie, Jocelyn, Amber, Kaitlyn, Nicole, and Ashley, the eagle girls. I almost couldn't believe it. But that wasn't the end of all of the craziness. The very next day, the oldest eagle girl, Lyssie, had imprinted on a brand new eagle named Michael. Michael was much like Joel in his genes at least, seeing as he was Dan's younger cousin. Just like Joel was Jacob's older cousin.

Also, some of the wolves and eagles who had imprinted on each other had had children about three years ago. Caleb and Mikayla had a son named Derek James. Jeremy and Natalie had a beautiful daughter named Alaina May. Matt and Jocelyn had a son named Christopher Phillip, and Lucas and Amber had a daughter named Miley Anne. Lyssie and Michael also had twins named Jon Kevin and Jayde Christine, and just recently, a son named Noah. The youngest of the wolf/eagle imprints had been married about a year ago. Nathan and Kaitlyn had a son named Andrew, Kyle and Nicole had a son named Logan, and Wyatt and Ashley had a daughter named Mackenzie.

So all together, the eagles were Dan, Adam, Ricky, Landon, Scott, Alex, Brian, Robert, Corey, Justin, Michael, Lyssie, Mikayla, Natalie, Jocelyn, Amber, Kaitlyn, Nicole, and Ashley.

While it all seemed complicated, it was the only life I had ever known. I had heard all of the stories so many times, I felt like I had been there myself. Today was my last day of high school. I had started attending high school as a freshman, right when my aging had slowed down enough to be undetectable. I had never really had many close friends while in High School, it was too dangerous. I had to protect our secret. After last bell, I walked outside into the drizzle and hopped into the blue Jeep Liberty I had bought myself a few years ago. It was fast enough for me, but my parents both thought it was very slow.

My father was currently working as a nurse at the Forks Hospital. He worked in the nursery, and loved it. He really enjoyed babies. He was considering going to med school and becoming a doctor. While Nessie was growing up, Edward had become a doctor, and Bella a fantastic nurse. When they had moved away, the hospital had replaced them with only one doctor, but they were being run thin pretty quickly. Carlisle was hard to replace. They really needed someone who specialized in newborns and children. My dad had decided to wait until I finished school to decide if he wanted to go to med school or not though. My mother was currently working as an interior designer. She and Kahini had actually started a business. Kahini had a crazy weird obsession with construction, and was fantastic at it. She had an eye for architecture. The two of them were currently flipping houses on the suburbs of Seattle, and were making a ton of money out of it.

Either way, both of my parents were working today. Naturally, all I wanted to do was go see Nick. But of course, I knew he had patrol right now. I decided to drive over to La Push and see who was around to hang out with. I saw the long line of wolf families walking home together as I began winding through the streets. This year, Brandon, Alexis, Kristin, and David had been in eleventh grade; Allison, Joshua, Kelsey, Madison, Marcus, and Cole had been in ninth; Eila had been in eighth; Ryan and Paige had been in seventh; Elizabeth, Evan, Anna, and Tyler (born just after the cutoff date), had been in sixth; Cade had been in fifth; Derek, Alaina, Christopher, Miley, Jon, and Jayde had been in fourth; and Andrew, Logan, Mackenzie, Jayna, Jason, Aubrey, Noah, Sydney, Mitchell, and Bridgette had just finished kindergarten.

Though I was actually about eleven years younger than Brandon, Alexis, Kristen, and David, I had started school a year ahead of them. I had been home schooled, and kept hidden from the world until I had been about four, at which point I had appeared in my early teens. The story had been put out around town that I was being adopted by my parents. At this point, they were well known around the town, and both had stable jobs. Everyone told them that they were very brave to be adopting a teenager. We had stuck to the story that I had recently been orphaned by some of my father's extended family in India, and he was the only living relative I had left. I had started high school when my growth rate had slowed to just above that of a human. And here I stood, four years later, a soon to be graduate of Forks High School. Nick, Jenny, and Liam had just graduated a year ago. I was grateful for the fact that even though fourteen years separated me and Nick, my exponential growth rate had allowed me to start high school just a year after him. It had made the whole 'dating' experience seem much more normal than it really was.

I pulled my car up outside of the Uley home, hoping Jenny was in. She had been taking online classes through a public university this past year, along with Liam and Nick. She was also currently working as a lifeguard on the beach, but her hours would really pick up now that summer was coming. I could smell her as soon as I was out of the car, and waved to Brandon, Allison, and Ryan as they were walking up. "Hey guys," I said. "Happy summer."

"Happy summer," Brandon said. "That was the longest year of my life."

I laughed. "Junior year is rough," I said. "But don't worry, it's over now."

"Amen to that," he said. As I followed them into the house, I noticed that Liam was there too. I walked into their entryway and waved.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey," Jenny and Liam said. They were both sitting on the couch, reading separate books.

"Slow day?" I asked.

"Oh yes," Jenny said. "We finished classes a week ago and now we don't know what to do with our lives."

"Get married," Brandon said abruptly. "And get out of my house."

"Eventually," Jenny said.

While Brandon was already seventeen, he hadn't shifted yet. We were all kind of waiting for it to happen, but it might not. There just weren't the threats that there used to be. We thought that my family had likely triggered Jenny and Liam to shift, but it really could have been any kind of vampire passing through. Nick had told me that if enough of the kids started shifting, it was likely that Caleb, Jeremy, Matt, Lucas, Nathan, Kyle, and Wyatt would stop shifting. If that was the case, then Michael, Lyssie, Mikayla, Natalie, Jocelyn, Amber, Kaitlyn, Nicole, and Ashley would all likely stop shifting as well. They all wanted to grow old for their children. It was difficult to watch their kids growing up while they were frozen at the age they had shifted.

As the younger three Uley's spread out through their small house, I took a seat next to Jenny on the couch. "Are you guys thinking about getting married?" I asked.

"Actually," Liam said. "Yes."

"That's really awesome," I said. "Have you guys looked at your finances and stuff?"

"Well," Jenny said. "We both have a bit of money saved up. The reservation is willing to give us a house if we apply for it. There are some way back in the woods by the beach that aren't being used, and if we could fix a house up, it would be ours. Liam just got the job working for the reservation's historical society. He's in charge of the website. That'll be a solid paycheck every two weeks. We aren't spending that much for our college degrees, and neither of us are pursuing a bachelors. We'll be done with school next year at this time."

"It'll be a little rough," Liam said. "But I think we could do it."

"You wouldn't be the first," I said. "Leah and Joel did it while they were both shifting, and so did Brooke and Embry. The reservation can help you guys a lot."

"It sure helps that the Elders know the secret," Liam said.

Jenny paused for a moment. "How about you?" she asked. "Have you guys talked about getting married?"

I laughed. "You know," I said. "I was born eight years ago."

"You're point?" she asked immediately.

I shrugged. "We've talked about it," I said. "But not seriously. The properties my dad and I purchased when I was two have gotten me a lot of money. I have to make sure they are kept up, but it's not that much work. My mom would love to fix us up a house, no matter how small it is. And Nick has been working for the general store since he was a sophomore. It's a minimum wage job, but it'll only be about two or three years until I'm out of college."

"What are you going for again?" I asked.

"Interpretation and Translation," I said. "I already speak English, Hindi, Spanish, French, and I'm working on Quileute, Mandarin, and German. They could really use a French speaker in Port Angeles. Their lumber company just started doing a ton of business with a big lumber company in Canada, and there's apparently more of a language barrier than they expected. I've already been communicating with them, and they are very interested in me. I'm actually doing a paid internship this summer. I'm really only going to school to get certified so I have a backup plan if this job ever doesn't work. They have a lot of Spanish speaking customers as well, and I could be helpful with that. Also, I can translate books and stuff with a separate business, or even for the reservation. Plus, if that ever falls through, I can freelance if I have to."

"You're going to be really good at interpreting," Liam said. "Cause girl, you can talk."

I laughed. "It's in my nature."

Jenny chuckled. "I can't believe we're old enough to be talking about marriage."

I smiled. "Imagine how I feel." We left it at that. "Can I cook for you guys?" I asked.

"I told you," Liam said. "Anytime you want to cook for me, you can."

I smiled. "Alright," I said. Cooking was one of my favorite hobbies. It was strange, considering I had no desire to eat any food. I went into the kitchen and started digging out ingredients for homemade lasagna. I kept checking my watch, and made plenty of food so that anyone who stopped by would have something to eat. Also, I liked to leave leftovers at the houses I cooked at. Nick should be done running patrol just in time…

Sure enough, as my final timer dinged for the lasagna to be done, and my garlic rolls cooled, I smelled Nick coming up the lawn. "Foods ready," I said. I walked out of the kitchen as Nick was walking through the door, and jumped into his arms.

"Hey there pretty girl," he said. "How does it feel to be done with High School?"

"Good," I said. "Glad I did it though."

"Yeah?" Nick said.

"Uh-huh," I told him. "You want some food? I made a ton."

"Sure," he said.

Ryan was sitting on the couch. "There's plenty for you Ryan," I told him. I knocked on the bedroom doors of the other Uley children and gave them the same message. I saw Sam coming up the driveway just as everyone was sitting down to eat.

"Hello," he said as he came in. "Just came home for lunch."

"You picked a good day for that," Liam said. "Zemati cooked."

"Awesome," he said. He sat down next to Brandon. "How were finals?" he asked his older children.

"Physics was rough," Brandon said. "But I think I managed a B."

"That's awesome," Sam said. "And you Al?"

"Band was kind of tricky, but Ness grades easy. English was crazy easy," she told him. Nessie had been teaching music at the school for about ten years now.

"Glad to hear it," he said. "Anything exciting happen today Ryan?"

"Not particularly," he said. "Paige tripped and fell on the stairs and I just about went down with her though."

Sam laughed, hearing about Leah's youngest. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah," Ryan said. "I was the only one who saw."

"Well that's good." He shook his head. "I can't believe you're going to be in eighth grade next year. We're going to have two graduations to be celebrating."

"His will be on Thursday and mine will be on Friday," Brandon said.

"That'll work out nicely," Sam said. "When do you graduate Z?" Sam asked me.

"Next Friday," I said. "The eighth graders are the night before us, just like in La Push."

He finally took a bite of his lasagna. "This is amazing," he said. "I have no idea how you cook without eating some of it."

"I have a great nose," I told him. "Edward actually taught me how to do a lot of it," I said.

"How are they doing?" Liam asked, getting a second helping of the lasagna.

"Good," I told him. "They are actually looking into moving again though. Maybe even into Canada actually. They want more seclusion I guess. Plus, that would put them even closer to Forks. They miss everyone like crazy."

"How often do you talk to them?" Jenny asked.

"Just about every week somebody will call to check up. I've actually heard a lot of this secondhand from my family. I talk to Nessie all the time though. She calls or video chats them just about every night."

"Do you guys hunt together?" Brandon said, swallowing his lasagna.

"Usually," I said. "We matched up our feeding schedules. The kids come with about every other time. My family is almost always out there with us though."

"Do the kids still need help?" Sam asked.

"Not so much," I said. "They've adapted their hunting technique to their needs. Sometimes they crave a certain animal though, and they might need help with that. Cade took a pretty nasty smack from a mountain lion a few months ago, but he bounced right back up. It scared Nessie to death though."

"I suppose they're stilling growing," Sam said.

"Yes," I said. "Hopefully it'll only get easier for them."

"For some reason," Liam said. "I struggle to picture a four-foot-nothing Cade wrestling with a mountain lion."

I laughed. "It's quite a sight. He fights like Bella though," I told him.

"Does Eila?" Nick asked.

"Not at all," I told him. "She's like Nessie and Edward. Way more controlled. Bella and Cade both just go nuts. It's really funny."

"Who do you hunt like?" Nick asked me.

"My dad," I said immediately. "My mom is like a sniper out there: silent but totally lethal. My father and I have not yet mastered the art of being classy while hunting. It's extremely unladylike. "

"I'd like to see it sometime," Liam said.

"No," I said immediately, shocked that he would want to see something like that. "It would be really dangerous for you. We don't pay attention at all when we're out there. You could be dead before we even realized what was happening."

I saw Jenny flinch slightly as I mentioned Liam dead. "I didn't realize you ever lost control," Jenny said.

"It's an important part of keeping it when we need to," I said. "But if it makes you feel any better, it's my family you'd really have to watch out for. They haven't been doing this as long as the Cullens. They crave it so much more than Nessie or I."

"Well," Allison said, bringing her plate to the dishwasher. "This was a very informative lunch."

I laughed. "Did you enjoy it?" I asked.

"Of course," she said. "I think I'm going to go see what Kelsey's doing, or maybe Madison," she said. "If that's okay."

"It's not going to bother me," Sam said. "But let us know if you won't be home for dinner."

"Okay," she said, already putting her light jacket on as she walked out the door.

"You want to go for a walk?" Nick asked me.

"Sure," I said. "But I have to clean up first."

"No you don't," Jenny said. "You cook, I clean."

"Oh come on," I said. "I can do it."

"No seriously," she said. "I'm cleaning."

I gave her a look, but finally agreed.

"Alright then," Nick said. We headed out the door, and the air felt warmer than usual. I loved summer. Even in Forks, it got mercifully warmer.

We headed down the streets of La Push, heading toward the general direction of Forks. "So," Nick said. "You're graduating in a week."

"Yup," I said. "I'm starting my online summer school in just a few weeks."

"How many classes are you taking online once the school year starts?"

"All except one," I told him. "I have to do Chemistry at the school because of the labs. I only have to go up there once every month though." I was going to be attending a small college in Seattle next year. It would be a long drive, but it would work for the short amount of times I had to go up there. Plus, I was a fast driver, no matter what my parents said.

"That'll be nice," he said. "Though I know you don't like science that much."

"No," I said. "But hey, having a super-fast mind can really help sometimes."

He chuckled. "I'm sure it does." We walked quietly for a while, and at some point he grabbed my hand. My palm in his felt so natural at this point that I hardly noticed. "So what about us?" Nick asked me. "What are we doing?"

I thought about what he was saying. "Well," I said. "I suppose we keep doing what we're doing right?"

"And what is that?" Nick asked me with a smile.

"Oh you know," I said. "Being in love and all."

"And all…" he said, trailing off. He took in a deep breath. "Are we going to get married Z?" he asked me.

Having heard the question from Jenny just about an hour ago, you'd think that I wouldn't be as shocked. Yet, there I was, my mouth just about hanging open. "Do you want to?" I asked him.

He squeezed my hand. "I do," he said. "No cliché intended."

I chuckled. "Well," I said. "I suppose we could. We'd have to get a house and things though."

"I've looked into it," he told me. "I think we could do it."

I nodded. "You might have to look for a better job at some point," I said.

"I've been thinking about that," he said. "Quil got trained as a 911 operator when he was about my age, and he said they could use about two more people. I could apply. That would be a paycheck."

"That's not a bad idea," I told him. "And it'll only be a few years before I've got a full time job. My parents are picking up the tab on whatever my scholarships don't cover for school. We could do it."


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

"Do you want kids?" he asked me.

I laughed. "I am a kid," I told him. I smiled. "But I have thought about it. I think I would just want one."

"Ha," Nick said. "I was thinking the exact same thing."

"That works out nicely," I said. He laughed, and kissed me on the cheek.

Two nights later, I was at the Black's house. I was going to go hunting with Nessie and the kids, and they were just getting their shoes laced up and ready to go.

"Alright," Nessie said. "Let's get going."

Eila was almost as tall as I was now. Cade was still about four inches shorter, but getting taller every day. He looked more like Jacob all the time, and Eila looked more and more like her grandmother. She looked more like Bella than Nessie did. We headed out their back door and directly into the woods.

It wasn't long before I was completely in the zone. I took down two deer, and got a rabbit just for the fun of chasing it. Cade was fantastic at catching the rabbits, and they were one of his favorite I knew. "Hey Z?" he called as I jogged past him at one point.

I turned back. "Yeah?" I asked, skidding to a stop.

"Can you help me get a deer or something? The rabbits just aren't cutting it tonight." He sounded so much like his father I almost laughed out loud.

"Sure," I said. I stayed near him, and followed his lead as he got a whiff of a deer. We both took off, and once he got going, his little legs carried him plenty fast enough. He got to the deer, and started going at it. I pushed the deer to the ground, but he got his neck broken all by himself. He drank deeply, and kept going.

"Thirsty?" I asked him when he finished.

"Not anymore," he said.

I laughed. "Alright then. I think I'm done too. Do you know where your mom and your sister are?"

"Right here," I heard Nessie say. "Are you guys good?"

"Yep," I said.

We headed back to their house, and I saw Cade yawn. It was pretty late, especially for someone who was only the size of an eleven year old.

"Is your dad working tonight?" Nessie asked me as we got to her house. I saw that Jacob and Bryce were sitting at the kitchen table eating a late dinner. They had been on patrol I was pretty sure.

"Yes," I said. "All night," I told her. "And everyone else is out too. A bunch of them went up North to hunt, and my mom is going to work all night on a house I guess."

"You want to sleep here?" she asked me. "You and Bryce could fight for the couch."

I laughed. "Sounds fun," I said. "Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome here anytime," Nessie said. "You know that."

I thanked her again, and then decided to call my mom and let her know just in case she decided to come home. She was completely caught up in her work but told me to have fun. Apparently the family was planning on moving in tomorrow, and she and her crew had to work all night to get the house ready. I hung up the phone, and soaked up the warm night air. It was raining a little, but even that was warm.

I saw a small blue car pull up to the stop sign that was in between the Black's house and the Marquie's, and I realized that it was the Ateras. Quil waved to me, and a large silver pickup truck pulled up to the stop sign as well.

I saw what was going to happen two seconds before it did.

The silver truck wasn't stopping, and Quil was already taking off. In one loud, horrifying split second, the truck slammed into the side of the little blue car, and they both crashed to a stop. The shriek of metal on metal had me running before the cars were even stopped. Immediately I heard Quil.

"Claire!" he said, his voice just below a yell. "Claire!"

"Daddy…" I heard someone crying.

I was pressed up to the side of the car in the next second. "Jayna!" I called. Her little head was flopped against the side of her car seat that had been pushed up against her brothers. I sprinted around to her side of the car, and noticed the other driver already getting out of the car. It was a man I didn't recognize, probably a tourist here for the start of summer.

My heart was racing faster than normal as the adrenaline rushed through me, and I reached my hand in through the crushed metal to touch Jayna's face. Quil was becoming slightly hysterical, Claire still not responding. Jayna's face was warm, and I smelled the blood. I paused for one second, and listened for her heartbeat. After one awful moment, I finally heard it. Her face was completely cut up with glass, pieces still sticking out of it in places. Her breathing sounded normal to me, but she wasn't moving at all, completely unconscious.

I heard a moan, and realized it was Claire. "Oh Claire," Quil said, and I heard his tears. His door had been dented too much to open, as had Jason's.

I heard doors slamming, and Nessie was next to me soon. Joel and Nick were both out the door in the next second. "Leah called 911," Joel said, and I heard him fighting to keep calm.

"Daddy!" Jason cried, his little voice sobbing. "Mommy! Jayna!"

Nessie carefully pushed out the rest of his broken window and stuck her arm through. "It's going to be okay Jason," she told him. "I'm going to stay with you sweetheart."

"Jayna!" Quil said, shocked as he turned around. "Oh god, Jayna…"

"She's breathing," I told him, my heart breaking at his voice. "Unconscious, but breathing."

"Her face…" he said, and I saw one tear fall out.

He had his hand on Claire's shoulder. Her seat had been pushed up right next to his, the center console completely destroyed.

I heard the sirens in the next second. Nick had got the other driver to sit on the ground. He looked pretty shaken up, but not harmed. Jacob was trying to get Claire to respond.

She moaned in her unconscious state, and I saw her eyes flicker. "Quil…" she groaned. "Help."

Quil was really crying then. "It's going to be okay," he told her. "It's going to be okay."

"Mommy!" Jason cried again. Nessie stroked his hair soothingly.

"Jason…" Claire said. "Jayna!" she said, suddenly panicked.

"She's unconscious," I said, my heart breaking at the sound of her voice. "But breathing."

She was crying. "God Quil," she said. "It hurts so bad."

"I'm so sorry Claire," Quil said. "I'm so sorry."

Soon the fire trucks were there, and the ambulances behind it. "Stand back!" I heard someone yell, and I let Jacob pull me back. I watched in horror as they pried Claire's door off, and started to pull her out. She was an absolute mess. She looked like she had been cut everywhere, and was bleeding profusely from several of the wounds. Her right leg was clearly broken, and it was already swelling like a balloon. I could see the bruise forming on her neck from the seatbelt. Her face was swelling, as was her middle. I suspected cracked ribs. She cried as they pulled her out, screaming for Quil.

Nessie refused to leave Jason, covering his ears from his mother's screams. Quil's face was destroyed with pain. They got Claire into an ambulance, but didn't leave right away. Someone was able to yank Quil's door open, and made him climb out slowly. They led him to the ambulance with Claire in it, and after taking one last look at his twins, he went willingly.

"I won't leave them," Nessie swore to him, and I saw the stubborn determination on her face.

They were having trouble getting Jayna's door to open, but when they did, I wished they hadn't. Her little body was bruised all over, and the blood was dripping from her cuts. Her face was swelling just like Claire's had, and the seatbelt itself looked like it had cut her a little. They got her out of the car, barely able to remove the straps from her seatbelt. Leah was standing near the scene, trying to keep calm. "Go with her Leah," Jacob said as they took Jayna toward a second ambulance that had arrived just in the nick of time. She climbed in immediately, telling the EMT's her relation to Jayna.

I put my hands on my face, trying to hold back my tears. Jacob put his hand on my shoulder. "Keep it together," he told me. "For Jason. He's already terrified." They got Jason out of the car with just a little bit of bending and wrenching, but he was worse than I had originally realized. He had some cuts from the glass as well, and his little right arm was swollen from where Jayna's car seat had smashed up against it.

"Keep them together!" I heard one of the EMT's directing. They got Jason in the ambulance with Leah and Jayna, and Nessie followed. They slammed the door shut behind them, and someone was pulling on my hand that was still petrified against my face.

"Let's go," Nick was saying. He was pulling me toward a car that I recognized as Liam's. Liam was in the front seat with Jenny next to him, and Nick pushed me into the back seat.

Liam was already tearing toward the hospital. "They've got to be okay," I heard Jenny saying, over and over again. "They have to be."

"It's going to be okay Jen," I heard Nick say to her, but I recognized the difference in what she was saying verses what he was saying.

We were to the hospital before I could think of anything to say. We had followed the ambulances, and hopped out of the car as they rushed Claire in through the doors. I saw that Quil was with her, running along next to the EMT's. There was gauze everywhere, and I could just barely make out Claire's pained, terrified eyes. They had an oxygen mask pressed to her face.

Leah came in next, jogging next to the gurney that Jayna's tiny frame was on. "Still no consciousness," I heard the EMT saying. My father met them at the door, listening to the stats that the EMT was rattling off, giving directions. With only one doctor on at a time at the hospital, the head nurses had to take the lead in situations like this.

Nick pushed me through the door then, and out of the way. Jason came in a little while later, Nessie holding his scared little hand. "I'm not going to leave you," I heard her telling Jason calmly as they pushed him in. Someone put an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose almost immediately, and he looked terrified. "Breathe buddy," Nessie told him. "It'll make you feel better."

They got them through the doors then, leaving the waiting room feeling silent. "Are you the family?" A nurse asked us.

"Yes," Liam answered.

"We'll get you any information as soon as we can."

"Of course," Liam said. He gently led Jenny to a chair, and pushed her into it. She put her face in her hands, and finally started crying.

I bit my lip so hard it hurt, holding back a sob. My eyes leaking betrayed my poker face though, and it was all I could do to not become hysterical. Nick had his arms around my shoulders, and I felt like he was literally holding me up. Claire's screams were echoing in my head, and Jayna's face flashed before my eyes.

Other members of our family started arriving then, and Liam did his best to answer their questions. None of the kids had come I saw, and I heard Ashley saying that a lot of them had been left with Brandon and Alexis, and I knew they were more than capable of watching their cousins.

Nick finally got me to sit down, and my tears slowly stopped. We sat there for a while, and I allowed myself to be distracted by the solemn chatter. My dad came out after what felt like hours, but had only been about seventy-five minutes.

"Dad," I said, immediately standing.

He put his arm around my shoulder. "Hey monkey," he said. He had started calling me that when I was a very little girl. I had loved to climb trees so much that he had given me that nickname.

"They were all admitted," he told our quiet family. "They're stable, but Claire and Jayna are both in the ICU. Jason had to have stitches, but he did good. Nessie kept him really calm. They put Claire under, and are keeping Jayna under as well. They both have a lot of healing to do, but they're going to be okay."

I felt the tension ease.

"And Quil?" Embry questioned.

"He's going to be alright," my dad said. "But he's beating himself up pretty bad. He finally left Claire to go sit with Jayna, and talk to Jason. It sure made Jason feel a little better."

"When will they want visitors?" Mikayla asked.

"Jason needs to sleep," my father said. "But Claire is going to be waking up around three am, and I'm sure she'll want company then."

"Then I'll be here until then," Jenny said.

"I thought you might say that," my father replied. "I have to get back to Jayna, but I'll give you information as I get it."

"Keep us posted," Brian said. I hadn't even noticed that the male eagles were here. Word travelled fast.

I took my seat again, not sure what else to do. I looked at my watch. It was nearing twelve thirty at night, but I didn't feel tired. "Well," Robert said eventually. "At least they are going to be okay…"

"What even happened?" Dan asked.

I replayed the scene as best as I could, leaving out the gory details as much as I could. Everyone sat in stunned silence after I finished.

"Quil's never going to forgive himself," Kaylie said.

"I was about to say the same thing," Lauren agreed.

"He will," Nick said suddenly. "Eventually." When Nick had first changed, it had been Jenny who was there. She was the one who had made him angry. He had exploded out of his skin, and left a gash that ran from her bicep to her wrist. Just like her mother before her, she had been left with a scar. Emily's scars had been surgically corrected a few months after Jenny was first born, but I had seen pictures of her before that. She was still beautiful. Nick knew more about self-forgiveness than most people. He had hated himself for so long because of what he had done to Jenny, even though she couldn't have cared less.

"He's going to need us as much as Claire and the kids will," Embry said.

"Does anyone know what happened to the other driver?" I asked.

"He was talking to the cops when we left," Nick said. "I think he just didn't see the stop sign, or their car. He's not from around here."

"I can't even blame him," Jenny said a moment later. "It's not like we haven't all blown a stop sign once or twice."

Emily put her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "I'm proud of you Jen," she said.

Jenny smiled. "Thanks."

We sat there for about another hour, and eventually Leah and Nessie came out of the doors. They both looked completely exhausted.

"Nessie," Jacob said, pulling her into his arms. "How are they?"

"Alive," she said. "And that's all that matters." She buried her face in his chest, and looked like she was about to start crying. He rubbed her back slowly.

"They are all asleep," Leah said, seeming to be a little less traumatized than Nessie. She held Joel's hand, but was keeping herself together pretty well. "They had to get MRI's, and Claire has a pretty wicked concussion. She won't have any permanent damage, but there's a knot on the side of her head that's about the size of a baseball. She broke her right leg and three ribs. Jayna has a concussion too, but hers isn't nearly as bad. The car seat did its job. It protected her head and neck. She did have to get about three dozen stitches though. They had to dig the glass out of some of the cuts on her face. She needed stitches from where the seatbelt had cut her too. Only about three though. She won't feel those, but she'll feel the bruise they left."

"And Jason?" Sam asked.

Nessie took a deep breath. "He's alright," she said. "His right arm was fractured though. They had to give him a cast. He actually was awake enough to tell him he wanted a green one. I had to hold him down while they stitched his face, but he was good. They let him fall asleep on his own, but gave him a little medicine to keep him asleep. They had to give him a shot for his bruises, but he was asleep for that. He'll probably be released late today or early tomorrow." I checked my watch and it was almost two am at this point. Claire would be waking up soon, and would need lots of family to be there. Plus, Jayna would be terrified if she woke up alone. She still hadn't opened her eyes.

Ashley volunteered to go sit with Jayna until she woke up, and Emily went with her. Natalie and Brooke went back and sat with Jason, and the rest of us waited for the cue from one of the nurses that Claire would be waking up. It came just a few moments before quarter to three, and Jenny, Embry, Jacob, Nessie, Seth, Abbey, and I all went back first. We could have had one more person come back with us, but we thought it would be better to have people that were closest to Quil and Claire go back first. I gave Nick's hand a squeeze as I stood up to go, and he rubbed his thumb across the back of my palm.

A nurse led the way back through the small ICU, and I got to see a small peak at Jayna as we walked past her open door. My dad was in there with her and Emily and Ashley. I wagged my fingers at them as I passed.

We walked in Claire's room, and the first thing I saw was Quil sitting in a chair by her head. He had his head resting on his hands, and he was leaned forward.

"Hey there," Jacob said as we all filed in.

"Hi," he said. His voice was completely broken. We were silent as we looked at Claire's still form. She looked much better than she had when she had been pushed in on the gurney, but still a mess. The bump on her head made me cringe when I looked at it. The oxygen tube was stuck up her nose and taped to her face so she couldn't pull it off.

The beeping of the heart rate monitor was the only sound in the quiet room besides our breathing. "She was in so much pain," Quil said after a few moments. I saw the tears on his tan face.

Jacob put his hand on his shoulder. "It's not your fault," he said. "And she is going to be alright."

"I couldn't help her," Quil said. "I was trapped." He let out a quiet sob. "And my kids…"

"Are doing just fine," Embry said. "They will all make a full recovery."

"I feel like the worst dad in the world," he said. "I didn't even answer Jason when he was calling me." His tears were making my eyes prickle.

"You were scared," Jacob said. "He'll understand."

"I was too worried about Claire and not enough worried about them. How can I justify that?" Quil asked.

Jacob sighed. "Do you remember a few years ago when the Voluri went after Nessie and Eila? When they wanted Edward and Alice to join them?" I had only heard this story a few times, but the Volturi had tried to get the Cullen's attention by attacking Nessie, Eila, and ultimately Zach. They had done it through the means of another vampire though. They had only been loosely involved in the matter so Alice couldn't see when an attack was coming.

"Yeah…" Quil said.

"I didn't even realize Eila was hurt badly until I saw her laying on the table with Carlisle stitching her up. I could only think about Nessie. I don't think you should be beating yourself up so much over that. It's in your genes."

Quil sniffed. "I suppose."

"She's going to need you to be you Quil," Embry said. "You have to be okay for her."

Quil nodded his head. "Thank you for coming," he said. "And thanks for taking care of my kids Ness."

"Oh please," Nessie said. "A mommy is a mommy to all children."

Just then, Claire started to twitch. She groaned, and her eyes flickered. She slowly became conscious, and I could see the pain in her eyes. "Quil…" she said, looking for him.

"I'm right here," he said.

She slowly rotated her head to see him. "My head hurts," she said.

"I bet it does," he said. "You've got a pretty nasty concussion." She looked a little confused. "Do you know what day it is?" he asked her.

She looked scared. "No," she said. "Where are the kids? How old are they? What's my last name? Do we even have kids…?" she sounded very unsure.

"They are five years old, just finished kindergarten," Quil told her. "Your last name is Atera." He gave her a sad look. "The doctors said you might have some memory loss."

She had tears running down her face. "I remember them," she said. "But not their names…"

She started to cry harder, and Quil put his hand gently on her left cheek, the side that wasn't swollen. "Their names are Jason and Jayna. Jayna looks just like you, remember?"

"Yeah…" she said. "Yeah, I remember." She took in a sharp breath, and moaned. "Oh my god," she said. "There was a car accident. They were hurt. Where are they?" she asked for a second time that night.

"They're with our family," Quil told her. "They're both going to be just fine."

She turned her eyes, and looked surprised to see all of us here. "Whoa," she said. "How long have all of you been standing there?"

"About half an hour," Abbey told her.

She blinked at Abbey. "No offense intended," she said. "But I have no memory of you."

Abbey laughed a little. "Well I'm Abbey Clearwater. Seth's wife? I have three kids: Evan, Elizabeth, and Bridgette. Bridgette was born the same time as your kids?"

"Oh!" Claire said. "Sorry Abbey… I remember now…"

"It's no problem," Abbey said. "I'm sure we all just need to jog your memory a little. Do you know the other people here?"

"I know some," Claire said. "Nessie… Jacob, Embry, Seth…" she got to Jenny. "You…" she said. "Were at my wedding…."

Jenny smiled at her. "I was your maid of honor."

"Jenny Uley," Abbey immediately said. "I've known you since the day you were born."

"Yes," Jenny said. "You have."

She looked at me then. "Zemati…" she said. "Aren't you related to Nessie?"

I shook my head. "Not quite," I said. "Do you remember who my parents are?"

She paused for a few moments, thinking about it. "Aren't they vam-"

"Yes," I said, cutting her off. "See," I said. "You'll remember everything soon enough."

"Nick…" she said. "You're related to Nick? Are you married to him?"

"Not quite," I said. "But someday."

She nodded her head slowly. "Jenny…"she said, taking her eyes back to Jen. "Are you pregnant?"

Jenny gave her a quizzical look. "No," she said. "I'm not." She paused for a second. "Are you?"


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

Quil gave Jenny a strange look, and then whipped his head back to Claire to read her expression. She took in a few shallow breaths, feeling her broken ribs. "You know," she said. "I think I am…"

Quil put his hand on hers. "You didn't tell me if you were," he said.

"I didn't?" she asked. "Huh…" she blinked her eyes a few times. "I think I found out very recently. Like within the last twenty-four hours…"

"Do you know where the pregnancy test would be if you are?" Nessie asked her.

Claire looked very confused, but thought for a while. "Probably in the back pocket of my pants actually," she said. "I would have wanted to show you," she said to Quil.

Nessie looked around the room. She found the pants that had been grotesquely cut off of Claire folded in a chair. Nessie went to the back pocket, and sure enough, she pulled out a pregnancy test. She looked at the screen. "Ha," she said. "It says positive. I guess you are pregnant…"

Claire sniffed. "I hope he's okay…" she gingerly put a hand over her belly button.

"It'll be alright," Quil told her. "Either way, it'll be alright."

She sniffed. "The kids aren't alone are they?"

"No," Abbey said. "Emily and Ashley are with Jayna. Natalie and Brooke are with Jason."

Abbey blinked. "Who's Natalie?"

"She's an eagle," Quil whispered to her, too quiet for a passing nurse to hear.

"Oh," Claire said. "Is she kind of short, super petite?"

"That's her," Abbey said. "Small-boned, that one. She's Alaina's mom, and married to Jeremy."

"Right…" Abbey said.

"There's been lots of mommies taking care of your kids tonight Claire," Nessie said. "They've been just fine."

Claire nodded, still crying a little. "That's good," she said.

"Why are you crying Claire?" Quil asked her.

"I'm scared," she said immediately. "And really confused. And it hurts really bad."

"It'll be okay," he told her again. "What hurts?"

"My head," she said. "And my ribs. Did I break them?"

"Three," he told her.

"Yep," she said, sniffing. "That's about what it feels like."

We stayed and talked to Claire for a little while, figuring out what she remembered and what she didn't. We stayed with her while Quil went to go see a very scared Jayna who had just woken up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. Jason was still sound asleep, healing perfectly. Claire told her nurse that she was pretty positive she was pregnant, and the nurse informed the doctor. The doctor was feeling positive about the health of the baby, but he said only time would truly be able to tell. After about an hour, we went out into the waiting room and told everyone the updates we knew. Jenny, Nick, Liam, and I went to go sit with Jayna while the others visited Claire and Quil. After that, people started going home one by one. The sun was just starting to rise at five-thirty am, and I drifted on Nick's shoulder while we sat with Jayna. She was healing nicely, and they moved her out of the ICU and into the room next to her brother's around seven am. Brooke had gotten the key into their house from Quil, and had brought the kids some things that would distract them. Nick led me back into Liam's car around seven-thirty that morning.

The next thing I knew, I was slowly waking up in Nick's bed. His house was quiet, but I heard the TV on in the living room. I was pretty disoriented, having no memory of how I got there. I rolled out of bed and looked at the clock. It said twelve pm. I opened up Nick's bedroom door, and saw Leah sitting on the couch, reading a magazine.

"Hey," she said.

"Hi…" I said. I gave her a look. "I have no idea how I got here."

She laughed. "You fell asleep in the car. Nick carried you in and dropped you on his bed. He was asleep on the couch until about an hour ago. He had to run patrol."

"Huh," I said. "That makes sense."

I looked down at my outfit and realized I was still in my hunting clothes from the night before. "Oh," I said. "I'm sorry," I said to Leah. "I'm in your house in filthy clothes."

"Oh please," Leah said. "I have two sons and a husband. You aren't doing any harm."

I nodded thoughtfully. "Where are your kids?" I asked her.

"A bunch of the dads took them for a hike," she said. "Us moms were trying to figure out a schedule for the hospital. Jason is being released today, and so I'm going to pick him up and stay with him until Quil's mom can come over. She was working until like six o'clock tonight though. Claire's parents are out of town. Jayna is supposed to be released sometime tomorrow, but I suppose we'll figure out who can stay with her as it happens. Claire is trying to get Quil to go home and get some sleep, but he won't leave her."

"I'll be he won't," he said. I shook my head. "I wouldn't."

"Me neither," Leah said. We shared a mutual bond in that moment. We both knew what it was like to have someone imprint on us, and in her case, imprint on somebody. She looked up from her magazine at me. "Do you and Nick think you're going to get married?" she asked me.

I smiled at her. "He just asked me that the other day…" I shrugged one shoulder. "I think we will. We could afford it I think. If he asked me tomorrow, I would say yes."

She nodded, pensive. "It's good that you guys have talked about it and looked into stuff like that."

I cocked my head at her. "Do you approve of your son's choice in wife?" I was just teasing of course.

"Of course," Leah said. "You know I love you Zemati."

I smiled. "Thank God we get along," I told her. "Could you imagine if we didn't?"

"I don't even want to think about it," she said. "That would stink."

"Have you always gotten along with Joel's mom?"

"Yes," she said. "But Sam's mom didn't like me much at first."

"Sam?"

She gave me a shocked look. "Haven't you ever heard this story?"

I shook my head. "No," I said. "Do tell."

Then she told me the story of her and Sam, and how in love they had been. I was astounded. I couldn't picture Leah with anyone but Joel, and I couldn't picture Sam with anyone but Emily.

"So," she said, finishing her story. "Now you know how good imprinting can be, and how potent."

"Wow," I said. "I never thought about something like that happening."

"No one did," Leah said. "I was devastated. I was really bitter, for a long, long time about it. But then I met Joel, and I understood. Sam and I became close again though after that. Sometimes I still call him on the phone and we just rant for like two hours. It's pretty great."

I laughed. "I always thought it was kind of weird how friendly the two of you were. When I was little I frequently confused you and Emily."

Leah laughed. "That's okay," she said. "We are cousins."

After a few more minutes of talking to Leah, I decided to head home and get a shower. My car was still parked at the Blacks' house. It was just right across the street. I waved to Eila through the window as I climbed in my car and headed home. My mom was getting there at the same time as me, and I told her what had happened. She freaked out, and started swearing in Hindu, but calmed down when I told her they were all going to make a full recovery.

Exactly five days later, I was graduating from High School. I sat on stage with four of the other top students, and listened politely to the valedictorian speech. The girl was a sweetie, but I had never grown particularly close to any of my classmates. It was dangerous to have human friends. My parents were hosting a party/bonfire at our house tonight for our family. Everyone was invited, and it looked like attendance would be one hundred percent.

The ceremony was short with only about seventy-five kids graduating. I tossed my hat into the air with the rest of my graduating class, and immediately turned to find my family. Only my family and Nick had come, but everyone was going to be at the party. My mother and father each gave me a kiss on the cheek, and Nick took a picture of the three of us.

He rode back with us to my house and we got the fire going. It wasn't long before everyone started showing up. Claire had been released from the hospital two days previously, and was doing just fine. Her memory was completely back, and everything was healing nicely. She was on crutches because of her broken leg, but would that would be taken off in about six weeks. They had run an ultrasound on her just today, and everything had looked just fine. They hoped to be able to hear a heartbeat in about three weeks. Apparently she had been getting a little bit of morning sickness, so that at least was a sign of pregnancy. Abbey, the OB/GYN at the hospital said things should honestly be okay. Her stomach hadn't had much trauma, and her oxygen supply had never been cut off.

My house was whirring with activity, and the fire outside was warm and happy. I sat on a log with Jenny at my left and Nick on my right. Liam was on Jenny's other side. Nick was acting kind of funny, like he was nervous about something. I suspected he was just happy to be with everyone on a better occasion than the last time we were all together. Everyone was there, and kept telling me congratulations.

I turned to face Jenny so I could ask her about her summer plans. Behind her, I saw Liam fumble with something in his pocket, and then drop to the ground on one knee. I realized what was happening right as I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned around, and the entire world stopped.

Nick was on one knee, smiling up at me. He had a ring box in his hands, and I just about fell to the ground. He took one of my hands in his and pulled me to my feet. I heard Liam talking behind me, but I didn't care to hear what he was saying.

"Zemati," Nick said. "I know we're young. I know we have lot to figure out, and a lot we aren't sure about. But would you please do me the honor of marrying me?"

In that moment, I saw every moment I had ever spent with Nick flash through my memory. Him holding me as a little girl. Him playing with me, and chasing me around. Him calling me Z for the first time, a nickname that had stuck. Him dancing with me at prom a few weeks ago. Him holding me in a hospital waiting room. Him carrying me from the car to his bed. Him on one knee, right now.

"Of course," I said, fighting back my tears. "Yes, yes, yes!"

He swept me into his arms and everyone was clapping around us. I held onto Nick, and buried my face in his shoulder. I was crying, but had never been happier. He finally set me back on my feet, and slipped a silver band around my finger. There was a small diamond in the center of it, but it was absolutely beautiful. I turned to face Jenny, and she was already standing with her arms open for a hug. I looked across the fire, and saw Liam's mom, Emily, Leah, and my mother all sitting side by side.

"Where did those little babies go huh?" Leah said, and I could hear the raw emotion in her voice, even though she was smiling.

"I was thinking the exact same thing," my mother said.

"They will be happy," Liam's mother said.

"I couldn't ask for anything more," Emily said.

I walked over to my mother, and my father was close. They both swallowed me in a big hug. A second later, I felt the impact as the rest of my family jumped in on our group hug. Jai and Selena were laughing, and Kahini and Mayur were as well. They were all speaking rapidly in Hindu, and I could barely keep up. They were all cracking jokes though, and telling me congratulations.

They finally let me go, and Leah gave me a hug. Joel did as well. Alexis and I started talking a mile a minute, and both couldn't stop laughing. Cole, Nick's younger brother, and I high fived, and I gave Paige a hug. My soon to be brother and sister in laws didn't seem too surprised at the nights events.

"You know what the kicker is Z?" Liam asked me. "Last week when we were all talking about the possibility of getting married, both Nick and I had already bought a ring. We've been planning on doing this now for about a month."

"How did you keep it a secret from me?" Jenny asked. "I can read your minds!"

"Very carefully," Nick said. "I'm pretty sure everyone but you knew."

"I knew!" Wyatt said immediately.

"How did you manage to keep it a secret?" Jenny asked.

"No idea," Wyatt said. "I've been thinking about a whole lot of random stuff for the last month if you haven't noticed."

"I noticed," Jenny said. "I thought you were just being an idiot."

"That's what I would have assumed," Ashley said.

I laughed at the dynamic of Ashley and Wyatt's relationship. They were both so sarcastic.

Nick squeezed my hand. "I love you," he whispered to me.

"I love you too," I told him. Liam and Jenny were the last ones at our house, and they left around two am. We had discussed wedding plans, and had decided to do a joint wedding. Nick and Jenny said that they had done everything together since birth, so it was only right that they got married at the same time. I asked my mother how quickly we could put a wedding together, and being the crazy planner she is, told me that we could be getting married in a week if we wanted to. We decide to wait two weeks so we could get our houses set up and things, but we were still going to go through with it exactly fourteen days from today. My mom sent Jenny home at two am, and told her to clear her schedule tomorrow because we were going to dress shop until someone dropped. Liam volunteered to take her patrol shift, and told us good luck.

I walked Nick to his car right after Jenny and Liam left, and leaned against his used, green pickup truck. "Hey…" he said, taking my hands in his. He pressed his body up to mine and kissed me on the lips. I kissed back passionately, my tongue playing tag with his. His hands were going up and down my sides, feeling the curve of my hips and back. I traced the muscles in his back, feeling every individually defined ligament. His mouth moved with mine greedily, and I was the one who had to pull away.

"Hey," I said, as he kissed down my jawline. "You have to go home. I have to get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow night okay?"

He kissed my lips again, and I almost got pulled under. "Nick," I said, pulling away again.

He finally pulled back. "Alright," he said. "I hope you find a dress that you love. But don't worry about what I'll think of it, you could get married in sweatpants and a holey t-shirt and I wouldn't care."

I chuckled. "I'm sure we could both do a little better than that."

I gave him one last peck on the cheek, and waved as he pulled out. I came through the front door and my parents were sitting on the couch.

"Well," I said. "This summer has taken an unexpected turn in events."

My mom laughed. "Get some sleep," she said. "You're going to need it. I just texted Bella, and they're all going to fly down here for the wedding."

"Perfect," I said, and I really meant it. I had never been happier.

The next day was crazy. My mother, me, Kahini, Selena, Jenny, Emily, Leah, and Liam's mother Jackie, all piled into Emily's minivan and booked it to Seattle. There was a big wedding dress shop up there, and we planned to spend most of the day there. We combed the store for about two hours, and we each had almost twenty dresses waiting to be tried on. Jenny found her dress almost immediately. The sixth one she tried on couldn't have been more perfect. It was perfectly white, a halter at the top. It flattered her small chest, clinging to her body until it reached her slender hips. It was covered with a layer of lace on the top, and flowed out gently at her pelvis. She was stunning. After checking the price tag, it was just under her limit. She was ecstatic.

I tried on dress after dress after dress, but none of them were right. I was bustier than Jenny, shaped like my mother. I had womanly hips, but a completely flat stomach and thin legs and arms. After what felt like a million more dresses, I finally found one that slid on perfectly, and I just knew. I turned to face myself in the mirror, and my breath caught.

"This is it," I said immediately, and my mother laughed.

The dress was one shouldered, and tight around the bust. It clung to my stomach and hips, and fell in silky waves to the ground. Right below my chest there were diamond shape cutouts that went around my ribcage to meet a bedazzled band that went down my spine. It accented everything perfectly.

My mom let the others in the door then. "Damn," Jenny said as she came around the door. "You look like a total sex monster."

My mother and I both burst out laughing. "You really do look great though," Leah said. "I'd marry you in that."

I cracked up at that too. The price was a little more than I had been looking to spend, but I could manage. "I have some shoes that match the color of that dress perfectly," Kahini told me. "That could be your something borrowed."

"Perfect!" I said, more excited about the wedding than ever. We had time to find veils and jewelry, so we went back to shopping. I bought a necklace and earrings, but I was going to wear an old bracelet that my parents had got me for my fifth birthday. I found a garter with one blue bead hanging from it, so I covered something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. Jenny was wearing a necklace that was a family heirloom. It had one blue sapphire in it. Emily had worn it at her wedding, and her mother before her.

I called Nessie on the way home and asked her to be my maid of honor. She agreed immediately, and asked what color I wanted her in. Jenny and I had decided to put our maids of honor in blue, the same color as her necklace. Alexis was going to be Jenny's maid of honor, and Nick was having Brandon as his best man. They were each going to ask their younger siblings, but decided to ask each other's instead. Nick's sister was Jenny's maid of honor, and Jenny's brother was Nick's best man. Liam had asked Seth. The two of them had bonded more than I thought they would have. I couldn't even imagine finding out that my father had cheated on my mother before his death, and gotten a young girl pregnant at that. I texted Nick that I was almost home as we got closer. We were going to go stargazing tonight. We had started doing it last summer.

Nick picked me up in his pickup truck about ten minutes after I got home. I had shown my dress to my male family members, and they thought it was gorgeous.

"Hey," Nick said as I climbed in the car. "How did it go?"

"Well," I said as we left my driveway and headed for what could best be described as the middle of nowhere. "I found a dress."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," I said. "And Jenny's exact words were 'Damn, you look like a total sex monster.'"

He cracked up. "That's great."

When we got to our favorite spot a few miles out of town, he pulled off the main road and took a few back roads until we got to an abandoned field. We drove a few bumpy miles out, and then he put the car in park. He grabbed a blanket and two old pillows out of his back seat, and we walked around to his truck bed. We spread the blanket out on the bottom of the truck bed, and put the pillows at the top. He gave me a hand up, and then climbed up after me. We laid down next to each other, and took in the clear Washington night. The stars were magnificent in the summer.

We were silent for a while. I felt his head shift, and looked over at him looking back at me. "You know," he said. "You might be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen?"

I smiled at him. "Have you met my mother?"

He chuckled. "Well," he said. "We know where you get your good looks."

I rolled over onto my side so I could look at him better, and he did the same. "You're awful handsome yourself," I said. The electric blue eyes that his father had given him were almost glowing in the dark field.

He slowly slid himself over to me so that our bodies were pressed together.

"We have to be careful," I whispered to him. "I don't want to have sex until we're married. You know that."

"Of course," Nick said. "And we can be as careful as you want to be."

I gently put my lips to his and slowly worked into a rhythm. His shirt was already off, and I greedily felt his strong core muscles. He ran his hand up and down my back, touching my flat stomach, and tickling in between my hips. He didn't go too far down, or too far up. I pushed him onto his back, and held him down by pushing on his chest. I let him feel like the prey for half a second, and then I pulled one of my legs over the top of him so that I was straddling him.

He chuckled. "You've trapped me," he said.

I smiled, sliding my way up his chest, feeling his body shiver the further I went up. I put my lips on his, and felt his body begin to subconsciously start gyrating against mine. Keeping my lips on his, I gently put my hands on his small hips, keeping them in place. I wasn't about to lose my virginity two weeks before my wedding. I'd made it eight years, I could make it another thirteen days. I kissed down his bare chest, making sure not to excite him too much. I didn't want him to be uncomfortable.

Before I even knew what was happening, I was on my back and he was straddling me. He kissed my mouth greedily, sticking his tongue deep into my mouth. He could have been suffocating me, but I loved his weight pressed against mine. Air was overrated anyway. Our lips danced, and after what felt like only seconds, he pulled away. I caught my breath, my chest violently rising and falling on the truck bed.

"Damn," Nick said, running his hand through my long black hair. "You are so sexy."

I scoffed. "You're telling me, Mr. eight-pack."

He laughed. "You are perfect."

"Not quite," I said. "But you sure are getting there."

He went for my lips again, and I couldn't help but kiss back.

The days leading up to our wedding passed in a blur of plans and being madly in love. Nick and I were approved for a house immediately from the tribe, and we found one that only needed minimal work. My mother and Kahini went nuts, working on the house for literally ten days without stopping. Two days before the wedding, my mother showed us the house. It was stunning. It only had two bedrooms, but that might be all we ever needed. She had gotten new appliances for the kitchen, and modern furniture for the living room. Our room had a large king sized bed in it. We had a half bath attached to our room, and a full bath in the hall. My favorite part of the house was the screened in porch in the back. We were about half a mile back from the beach, and completely surrounded by trees. The trees would prevent it from ever getting horribly wet. There was another house about of a quarter mile away, and Liam and Jenny had been working day and night to get it ready for their move in.

"Mom," I said after Liam and I got done touring our beautiful house for the first time. "What do we owe you for this?"

She shook her head. "Take this as a wedding present from the whole family."

"Amari we can't do that," Nick said.

"You can," my mother said. "And you will. I won't take a dollar for this."

I looked around at the beautiful house again, with the brand new appliances and furniture. "At least let us pay for the furniture," I said.

"No," my mother said. "We know people. It wasn't that expensive, and I'll only see you married once. So I insist on paying for this. How often will I be able to buy my daughter her first house? Only once."

"Thank you," Nick said. "So much. This is really a big help."

"It was my pleasure," my mother said. "Really. I enjoyed it thoroughly."

I gave my mother a hug. "Go look around," she said. "Do you guys want to start moving some things tonight?"

Nick and I looked at each other. "Sure," Nick said. "I'm sure my parents will want to see the house as well."

"Oh, you're mother has been here already," my mom said. "I invited her over earlier today. She told me to tell you that she would be staying here for extended periods of time unannounced."

Nick and I both laughed. "Well," he said. "We'd love to have her."

Nick and I walked into our house then, exploring it. My mother left us, she had a lot of work to do to catch up with her other projects. I checked out the kitchen, noting the good amount of freezer space. That would come in handy if Nick and I ever had the child we wanted. I would need to hunt for it for a while, and freezing the blood would be more convenient.

Nick was checking out the spare bedroom. My mother had left that one unfurnished, not asking about whether we intended to have children or not. I followed him in there, wrapping my arms around his strong middle as I came in. "It's a nice sized room," I said.

He nodded. "There's a nice closet too. Plenty of room for a bed."

I gave him a peck on the cheek. "You know," I said. "We may not even be able to have children."

He put his arm around my shoulders. "Believe it or not," he said. "I wouldn't mind spending the rest of an eternity with just you."

I smiled. "You might someday." I chuckled, lightening the mood. "What the heck are we going to do with this room if it's not for a child?"

He laughed. "I suppose we can turn it into a guest bedroom. We have lots of family that would love to stay with us. My parents and siblings for one."

I laughed. "And I'm sure Nessie would love to kick some of the Cullen's out of her house when they come to visit. They can get pretty noisy when they're all together for extended periods of time like that."

Nick chuckled. "I love you," he said.

"I love you too," I told him.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

The morning of my wedding, my mother woke me up at the crack of dawn. "Good morning," she said. "Beautiful daughter of mine." My father was standing in the door.

"You know," he said. "We've woke you up in this room a million times. I just can't believe that tomorrow, you won't be living here."

I got up and gave him a hug. "I'll always be your daughter," I told him. "And this will always be home. No matter what."

He gave my head a kiss. "As long as you're happy," he said. "That's all I care about."

"I will be happy," I told him. "Nick makes me happier than anybody else ever could."

"I know," he said. "But it's just hard to let go."

I kissed his cheek, and then let my mother pull me out into the hallway. We had decided to get married here, mostly because we had the space and my family was willing. Jenny and Liam loved the way the woods framed our backyard, and everyone we cared about would be able to fit here. The Cullens were flying here, and the Denali's were even coming. The house looked great.

"We've been working on the aisle all night," my mother said, turning me so that I was looking out a back window. It was stunning. Blue flowers were everywhere, with little pops of yellow and even fewer pops of magenta spread throughout. There would be just enough seating for our family, and the benches my Uncle Mayur had built were perfect for the occasion. The aisle was a long white carpet that would be covered with flowers before we proceeded down it.

"It's perfect," I said.

My mother smiled. "I'm glad," she said. "Your wedding should be."

Just then, there was a knock on our front door. Selena answered it. Arriving right on time were Leah, Emily, Alexis, Nessie, and my fellow-bride Jenny. "Hey," Selena said. "I hope you are all ready for some crazy amounts of primping."

Jenny laughed. "Let's do it."

Us girls took over my room and my bathroom. Emily and Leah worked mostly with Alexis and Nessie, claiming they could get themselves ready after. Nessie was easy. Her gorgeous hair and flawless skin hardly needed anything done to it. Emily helped her wash her hair though, and they added curl enhancer to her hair. They pulled the front back and secured it with some bobby pins and a comb with blue sapphires on it. Her mother had worn it at her wedding, and Nessie had worn it at hers. Eila would surely wear it at hers as well. They kept her makeup looking natural, with just some brown eyeliner and a little bit of mascara. They blushed her cheeks, and her dress was stunning on her. It was a thick sapphire sleeveless, showing off her toned arms. It was tight from her shoulders to her waist, and it gently loosened until it reached her knees. She said that Alice had bought it in Cleveland and brought it for her. They had arrived last night and were all currently visiting with Jacob and the kids.

Alexis could hardly look better. Though she was about an inch shorter than Nessie, her always confident demeanor made her look at least as tall. Leah curled Alexis's long black hair, and pulled the front back like Nessie's. She wore black eyeliner, and it contrasted perfectly with her dark skin and blue eyes. Her bangs were swept to the side, and clipped back with bobby pins that had fake sapphires on them. Her dress was the same color as Nessie's, but strapless. It didn't show any of her small cleavage, and gave her boyish hips some curve as it came out around her. She and Nessie were both in silver high heels, and they looked gorgeous.

Emily worked on Jenny's hair, twisting it back off of her face. They were working off of a picture of Bella's hair from her wedding. They put some blue flowers in Jenny's hair, and lots of sapphire bobby pins as well. It was soft, yet fierce, just like her personality. She was one of the most beautiful brides I had ever seen. Her mother's good looks had served her well.

It didn't take long to get me ready. My mother curled my straight black hair, and braided it around to the side. When it reached my shoulder, she curled the pieces into millions of little ringlets. They cascaded over my shoulder, and past my chest. She left a few pieces framing my face. When I put the dress on, it accented the one-shouldered, asymmetrical look I was going for. My mother put some of the infamous bobby pins in my hair as well.

Once we all had our hair and makeup done, my mother and I went with Nessie over to her house. We wanted to see the Cullen's a little before the wedding, seeing as they would be gone after our honeymoon. Nick and I were spending a week in a wilderness resort in Northern Oregon for our honeymoon. It was only about four hours away, and we would have a blast. There were tons of activities for us to do, and we got a pretty decent price for it.

"Hello there," Jasper said as we came in the door. "You all look fantastic."

"Thank-you," we all said at once. Bella greeted us as we walked in, giving my mother a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She did the same to me.

"You are one beautiful bride," she said to me.

"Thank-you," I said again.

"You're going to give Nick a heart attack," Edward said as I came around the corner.

Jacob came out of Cade's room then. "Well my goodness," he said. "Look at you Ness."

She smiled. "Do you like it?"

"I love it," he said. "You're a sight for sore eyes."

"How are the kids doing?" she asked.

"Alice is helping E," he said.

"And Cade?"

"We're getting there," he said. "The tie is taking a while though."

Nessie went and knocked on Cade's door. "How's it coming?" she asked.

He opened the door. "I got it!" he said.

"Check you out," Jacob said. "You tied that really nice."

"You look like a very handsome young man," Nessie assured him. "Go show Papa and Grandpa C."

Cade walked over to Edward and Carlisle and they admired his tie appropriately. "You look like your Dad you know," Edward told him.

"I know," Cade said. "And my sister looks like you."

"A little," Edward agreed. "But I think she looks more like Grammy."

"Maybe," Cade agreed.

"Nessie?" Alice called, poking her head out of Eila's room.

"Yes?"

"She would like her mother's approval before she comes out."

"Of course," Nessie said, rolling her eyes as she walked past Bella.

"Are you nervous Z?" Rosalie asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Not about being married," I said. "But a little about the wedding."

"It will be fine," my mother said. "The house is beautiful, you and Jenny are the prettiest brides I've ever seen, and Nick and Liam will look great. It's just family. We all love each other. It couldn't be better."

I laughed. "I'm glad you're so confident, but you aren't the one who has to walk down the aisle in heels and a dress."

"Daddy won't let you fall," she said

I nodded, pensive. "I suppose not."

"Are you excited for the honeymoon?" Emmett asked.

I ignored the possible double meaning. "Yes," I said. "It will be short and sweet."

"When do you start school?" Jasper asked.

"August eighteenth," I told him.

"Did you get that internship set up for this summer though?" He asked.

"Yes," I said. It had been confirmed about two weeks ago. "They're hiring me as an assistant actually, but when I get certified to interpret they'll hire me under that title. They told me I can still help with interpreting, but I have to learn how to do the paperwork and stuff as well. I suppose I'll be part secretary, part interpreter."

"That'll be good experience though," he commented.

"Yeah," I said, "It'll be a paycheck at least."

"Don't worry," Nessie said, coming out of Eila's room. "It'll all work out."

"We were worried about paying the bills at first too," Jacob said. "But the tribe really does help a lot. And you'll find work easily enough. Nick got hired a couple weeks ago right?"

"Yes," I said. "But he has to train for almost two months before he starts getting a paycheck."

"It'll fly by," Jacob said. "You guys will do just fine. And you've got a whole lot of help if you ever need it."

"Plus you only have to buy food for one," Nessie said.

Alice came out of Eila's room then, and Eila followed behind shyly. "Well what are you hiding from?" Jacob said as he saw her. "You look beautiful."

She slid behind her father's large frame. "You look gorgeous Eila," I told her. "You might just steal the show pretty girl."

She smiled at me. "Oh no," she said. "You and Jenny are much prettier than me."

I smiled. "I don't think so."

Eila was dressed in a coral colored cocktail length dress. It was made of chiffon, and was a soft fit. It was spaghetti straps. Her hair was braided from one side of her head to the other, making it look like a headband. Her black curls hung loosely behind her.

"We have gorgeous grandchildren," Bella said, looking at Edward.

"We have a beautiful daughter," he said. "Jacob; not so much."

Jacob gave him a look. "Gee, thanks."

"Just keeping it real," Edward said.

My mother looked at her watch then. "Are you ready to head back to the house?" she asked me.

I smiled. "Yes," I said. "I'll see you guys later!" I called as we walked out the door.

It was a perfectly clear day for Forks. There were clouds, but the sun was fighting to shine through. When we got the house, it looked perfect. My family had used the flowers that adorned the aisle to decorate the rest of the house. Everything was so clean it shined, and the rare sun that came in through the windows brightened the whole room. "There's the beautiful bride," Kahini said as we came in. "Are you excited?"

I nodded eagerly. "But also nervous."

"No need to be," she said. "Everything will go smoothly."

I nodded again. "I hope so."

"Are you ready to get your dress on?" My mother asked me.

I smiled. "Yes," I said. "I love that thing."

We both laughed. "That's good," she said. "Let's go. The guests will be here in about half an hour."

My mother and I shared precious moments together as she helped me slip into my dress and zipped me up. Neither of us said what we were thinking; that this was our last time together where I was just her daughter. The next time we were alone together, I would be Mrs. Nick Marquie. I heard the guests begin to arrive and my mother fixed my hair with her fingers. Jenny had arrived with her mother and Alexis just a few minutes after we had returned. They were in the room across the hall. My mother informed me when Nick, Liam, Brandon, and Seth had arrived. They were all in a room at the top of the stairs. They would be taking their places shortly. Alexis and Seth were going to lead the way down the aisle, followed by Jenny and Sam. Then Nessie and Brandon would go down, followed by my father and I. We put on a final coat of lipstick, and my mother kissed my forehead.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you," I said, not able to put into those three words the gratitude I felt for her. "And thank you. For being the best mother I could ever ask for, and for being the strongest woman I know."

"Oh stop," she said. "You're making me cry."

We both laughed. Leah knocked on the door then. "We are going to go take our places. The boys are coming down in about a minute I think. Seth, Brandon, Alexis, Nessie, Sam, and your dad are already waiting for you girls."

"Thank you Leah," I said.

She smiled. "You look beautiful," she said. She came to give me a hug. "And thank you," she said. "For making my son so happy."

I gave a dry chuckle. "It's hardly a chore."

"Still," she said. "I couldn't ask for anyone better for him."

I grinned. "I couldn't ask for a better mother-in-law."

She laughed. "I'll see you in a bit," she said. My mother gave my hand a squeeze as she walked out, and I blew her a kiss.

My father was standing in the doorway. "You look perfect," he said. "So beautiful."

"Thank you," I said. "And thanks for being my dad. I'm so glad I got to grow up with you as my example. You taught me how to fight for what's right, and to stand up for myself. I am so grateful."

He pulled me into his strong arms, and his tall frame swept me off my feet. "You are literally the best surprise I've ever gotten. Every single day I cherish with you, because I know how perfectly things must have lined up in order for me to get you. You are the brightest light I have ever seen, and you have so much to look forward to. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't, because you can."

I bit back my tears. "I love you," I said.

"I love you too." He held me for a moment, and then set me down. "Come on," I said. "Your groom will be waiting for you."

We walked out into the hall, and stood under the stairs with the rest of the wedding party. I heard Liam and Nick come down the stairs and meet the pastor. I couldn't see Nick, but hearing him and Liam laughing made my nerves settle a bit. Our family got quiet as they took their places at the front of the aisle. Edward began playing the piano, and Seth and Alexis took their places. They left right on cue, and I gave Jenny a nod as she clutched her father's arm. She smiled at me, and left as Edward began a version of the wedding march he had composed solely for her. I heard our family gasp as she came into view, and I knew they were shocked by her drop-dead gorgeous appearance. The wedding march flowed into a softer melody, and Nessie took Brandon's arm. Though only about four years older than Brandon, Nessie had watched him grow up. I could see the surprise in her face as she realized how tall he was. He was a spitting image of Sam, even more so than Nick was of Joel.

"Here we go," my dad said as a different rendition of the wedding march began, and my father led me down the aisle. Our family had stood and turned to see me, and gasped and whispered at my appearance as well. I made eye contact with the first few people that I saw, but then I was looking down the aisle at Nick.

Our eyes met, and in that moment, I was positive.

Nick was it. He was all I would ever live for, and all I would ever need to live for. His blue eyes were dancing in the shadowed sunlight, and his face broke into a huge grin as he saw me. I had tunnel vision. His black tuxedo highlighted his eyes and dark hair, and I was a goner. I was pulling my father down the aisle then, and he was holding our pace steady. I heard him chuckle slightly, and he placed my hand in Nick's soon enough. His warm hand grasped mine, and every piece of me fell into place perfectly.

Our ceremony was short, with just the classic vows. Nick and Liam said theirs at the same time, and Jenny and I said ours at the same time. When we said our final "I do's," I swear I heard a contented sigh come from the collective audience. Nick leaned in to seal our vows with a kiss, and I pressed my lips softly to his. Everyone was cheering, and I blushed slightly as we pulled away.

The four of us were being swallowed by our family's hugs and kisses. I noted the difference between the hot, warm, and cool hugs of everyone. The little kids were about to knock the four of us over as they clung to our legs, giggling. Their older cousins and parents managed to get them away from us eventually, and they were distracted easily by Edward on the piano. I gave Claire a gentle hug when she got to me. She was looking great considering the accident. She was a bit sore still, but mostly healed on other accounts. She gracefully limped with her walking cast and Quil's arm, and still managed to look gorgeous. She had been puking in the mornings, and they were both praying that that was a sign of the baby being okay. It was still too early to hear a heartbeat, but they were hopeful.

There was a dance floor that my family had set up the night previously, and they had hung lights to light it with. There were plenty of tables to sit at, and a massive cake that Rachel and Kim had baked and decorated. They were fantastic bakers. As soon as we had half a second to breathe, I turned to Nick and kissed his cheek. "Hey," I said. "I love you."

He laughed. "Well I sure hope so." He smiled. "I love you too."

Everyone flowed smoothly over to the reception area, and I saw Jai thanking the pastor and walking him out. Nick and I made our way around to all of the tables, and crossed Liam and Jenny doing the same thing. Everyone was enjoying drinks and a light dinner. Our vampire family members were politely chatting with everyone else, and they didn't seem to be struggling with their thirst at all this evening. I noted that their eyes were all a deep gold. It wasn't long before we were being called out onto the dance floor for our first dance. In the nature of the double wedding, we all had decided to have our first dance together. We had all sat down sometime last week and picked a song. It was a sweet song that all four of us liked.

Once we got dancing though, I didn't notice anything besides Nick. The song didn't matter, just him. "You know," I said as he spun me around. "You sure are handsome."

Nick chuckled. "There are no words to describe how you look this evening."

I smiled. "I'm happy," I said.

He smiled. "I was thinking the exact same thing."

We talked a little, but mostly just couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the dance. When the song ended, the DJ called our fathers onto the dance floor for the traditional father daughter dance. My father and I spoke calmly in several different languages as we whisked around the dance floor. We made small talk, keeping it light. We laughed at all of the other fathers and daughters as the DJ called them out to dance. Though getting on in years, Bella still brought Charlie out to the dance floor. Edward and Nessie were laughing hysterically about something as they danced around everyone else. Little girls were on their father's toes, and some had two to dance with. Carlisle made the rounds with all of his daughters, dancing with first Rosalie, then Alice, then Julia, then Andrea. Jai danced with Kahini, as well as my mother. Jacob and Eila were spinning around on the floor, and for the first time ever, I could see a little bit of resemblance between them. Her hair color was undoubtedly his, and perhaps her nose. Her face was assuredly Bella's, but I could see specks of Edward and Nessie in her appearance as well.

The dance ended, and the celebration continued on into the night. We cut the cake after a couple hours of dancing, and Nick smashed a piece onto my face. I spit the pieces he got into my mouth out at him playfully, and everyone laughed. There was no need to hide at this wedding. Everyone here knew that I didn't want to swallow any cake. The night flew by. It felt like only a few moments before all of the girls were lining up to catch my bouquet. Considering that everyone here was married or still in school, aside from Liam's mother, the little girls were adorable all lined up waiting to catch my bouquet.

I turned around so that I couldn't see, and gave my bouquet a good toss. I whipped around so I could see who would catch it. It could have gone to any of the older girls, but Eila used her superhuman strength to jump high in the air. She gracefully flew over the other girls, snatching the bouquet, and performing a perfect front tuck before landing in front of them. She landed with her arms up in the air and ran over to Edward. He shook her hand, and then gave her ten dollar bill. Everyone was already laughing hysterically, and it increased by a tenfold when we all realized that it had been a bet. "I didn't think she'd actually do it," Edward said guiltily. When Jenny threw her bouquet, it went right into the arms of little Bridgette. She was so adorable.

I sat on a chair as Nick removed my garter with his teeth, and I only blushed a little bit. Liam flung Jenny's garter first. If Eila had been a show, Cade was a showstopper. As the garter flew through the air, Emmett scooped Cade up and catapulted him towards the garter. He caught it around his wrist, and Jasper caught him by his feet on the other side of the dance floor. He set him up right, and brushed him off. "He's good!" he called.

"My children aren't play toys!" Nessie said through gasps of laughter.

"No they are," Emmett said. "They so are. You grew up, and we need another form of entertainment. Naturally, the job falls to your children."

Nessie just sighed, and put her face in her hands.

I was in hysterics at this point, crying from laughing so hard. When Nick shot my garter, little Noah valiantly dove to catch it, and was triumphant. Everyone cheered for him, and we lined up to take a picture with the lucky winners. We danced for about another hour, and then I was being whisked away to change into traveling clothes. We left my hair the way it was, but I changed into a pair of jeans and a pretty, lacey, white blouse. Jenny was wearing jeans and pale pink blouse. She managed to look sexy in even the most simple of outfits. I told her that, and she burst into laughter. We were both running on a joy high right now, and would laugh at just about anything. The boys were waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs, and as I took Nick's hand, the rice throwing started. They were really nailing our superhuman skin as hard as they could. It didn't hurt, but it was still spectacularly well-aimed. The little kids were having a field day with throwing the rice, and I laughed at the smiles on their faces.

Nick and I slammed the doors to his old beater, and he revved the engine a little. We spun out of my driveway laughing like psychos, and I waved to everyone as I left. I blew my mother and father another kiss, and I knew they knew who it was intended for. We had a hefty drive in front of us, but Nick was pretty sure he could do it. I was far too excited to sleep.

"So," Nick said as we drove. "About having children."

I burst into laughter. "Wow," I said. "You just cut right to the chase don't you?"

"You know I do," he said. "Anyway, I've just been thinking a lot about it." He put his hand on mine. "You aren't on birth control are you?"

"No," I said "I've never had a need for it. I get light periods that are only a few days long."

Nick nodded. "Well," he said. "What are your plans for the evening?"

I laughed again at his nonchalance. "I was thinking wild, passionate sex."

He burst into laughter. "Sounds like a plan to me, but we should at least recognize possible consequences."

I nodded thoughtfully. "Pregnancy is pretty high on that list."

"Uh, that was all that was on my list."

I smiled. "Me too I suppose." I took in a few breaths, thinking. "Well," I said. "We could do it," I nodded. "Not having to pay for any of the home renovations really helped out a lot. And you got that job. I'll have a paycheck this summer, and you'll have one after your training."

"No doubt we can afford it," Nick said. "But are we ready?"

I smiled, thinking of a little baby. Everyone always said I had been born a mother. I mothered everyone, even older adults. It was just in my nature. "I am," I said, confident. "And if you are, I'm willing."

Nick nodded. "I've felt like a parent to every one of those kids for years now." He shook his head. "I'm ready, but are you okay with what's going to happen to your body and all?"

I shrugged. "It's going to hurt a lot, but I think it will be worth it."

"I'm sorry," Nick said suddenly.

I scoffed. "For what?"

He sighed. "I don't know. It makes me cringe to think of you in pain."

I grabbed his hand this time. "It's natural," I told him. "It might be hard work, but it's natural."

He nodded his head. "Well. At least Nessie and Jacob did it first."

"Totally thinking the same thing," I said with a laugh.

The rest of our drive had much lighter conversation. We arrived at the resort around three am. There were about forty cabins on the property, but each one was very secluded. Nick and I had to check in at the front desk, and were informed of meal times. There were lots of activities to do on the resort, but some weren't included in our package. We planned on mostly just relaxing tomorrow, and planning out the rest of our week.

We had a short walk to our cabin, but it was on a wooded path. I could smell each individual nocturnal creature, and the very familiar scent of the woods. Nick pushed open the cabin when we came to it, and then paused. "Threshold," he said, scooping me and my suitcase up.

I giggled, and he set me down as soon as we were through the door. The cabin was small, but sweet. There was a very small kitchen, with just a sink and microwave. The living area was just a very large couch and a reclining chair, but there was a TV. We both looked into the bathroom, noting that the shower was plenty big enough for two. We went to the bedroom last. There was a large bed, with just a dresser in the front of the room. There was a closet, but it was small.

We talked a bit as we each unpacked a little. Nick took his shirt off, and placed it in a drawer. "I hate getting dressed up," he said.

I chuckled. "It's nice sometimes, but I prefer flip flops myself."

I started to unbutton my shirt, trying to be casual. Nick walked up to me and pressed his body to mine. He put his hand on mine, mid-button. "Hey," he said. "How about I do that?"

I smiled at him. He started to unbutton my shirt, slowly caressing my breast with the back of his hand. _This_ was new.

"Look at you go," I said.

He got my shirt off, and admired my white, lacy bra. "Look at you," he said, giving me the elevator eyes.

I slowly walked toward him, admiring his strong, defined muscles with my hands. I put my lips to his, and let myself be completely taken over. I put my arms around his shoulders, and jumped up, hitching my legs around his hips. He put his hands under me, his fingers exploring my backside freely. He walked us to the bed, and laid me down on my back, his tongue tickling the inside of my mouth. He let me feel some of his weight, teasing me, but his hands were working at the button on my pants. He broke away from my mouth, sliding my jeans off. I took the time to take his off as well; his loose fit falling off easily. He pushed me back onto the bed, kissing in a straight line from the middle of my ribcage, past my belly button, to the top of my matching white, lace panties.

We were both panting, but he looked up and smiled at me. "You're beautiful," he said.

I took his one moment of distraction to get on top. He leaned back on his elbows as I teased his hair. I let my hands explore his body, not even pausing as I ripped off his boxers. He chuckled as I used my hands in a brand new way, and kissed me. He sat up a little, getting off his elbows. He used one hand to remove my bra, and then went all out. He took me over, getting me on my back again. He pressed one hand over my breast, and used his mouth on my other one. I felt my chest hardening.

I sighed, saying his name quietly. He teased my lower half then, using his fingers to get me going. He got my panties off, and traced his hands over the insides of my legs, testing my flexibility. He pushed them apart, smirking at me as I moaned in anticipation. He entered me then, and he slid in with only a second of resistance. He was perfect. I gripped his hair and groaned as I felt a moment of pain, but it was quickly replaced by happiness. He worked his hands on my breasts again, kissing me. I gasped as he released his warmth into me, and I came at the same time. He moaned, and I used my hands to keep his hips pumping.

I moaned in ecstasy as that sought after feeling came to me just moments after it came to him, and he worked hard to make it last. It was the perfect amount of time for me, but I knew I would never be able to get enough. He pulled out, breathless.

"I love you," he gasped.

"I love you too," I said, moving my lips to his again. We came together again and again, and eventually, it was just natural for us to stop. We were both exhausted, and I felt completely drained. He pressed me close to his hot, sweaty body, and kissed my forehead. He stroked my hair gently, and I drifted off into unconsciousness.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER FIVE**

I woke up to the sound of wildlife, and Nick was gently rubbing my back. I opened my eyes to bright sunshine, muted by the green light of the trees. "Good morning beautiful," he said to me.

I looked into his possessing blue eyes. "Good morning," I said, still shocked at how fantastic the previous night had been.

He smiled. "You're perfect."

I smiled back. "I could say the same to you Mr. Marquie."

He kissed my forehead. "You're gorgeous."

I laughed. "Thank you. You're quite handsome yourself."

He chuckled. "You want to get a shower?"

I wrapped my arms around him. "Will you come with me?"

"Well sure," he said.

We both got up, and I checked my cell phone. My mother was wishing us a good trip, and then there was a text from Jenny.

_Hot. Fucking. Damn, _I read.

I burst into laughter, and showed the text to Nick. He had a similar reaction. I sent her a similar text back, and she sent me a winking face. I suppose they must have had a pretty good night as well.

It only took us about half an hour to get ready. We spent the day exploring the resort, which turned out to be more woods than it was civilization. We had a great time getting lost on the trails, and it was so remote that we didn't even get cell service. When we got back to our cabin that night, we were both filthy and exhausted. A flood of text messages poured in for both of us.

"Oh my gosh," Nick said.

"What?" I said, hearing the concern in his voice.

"Um," he said. "A bunch of the kids changed last night."

"Who?" I asked immediately.

"Brandon, Alexis, Kristin, and David shifted literally a few hours after we left. They think it was because the Denali's were all out hunting last night."

"Are they okay?" I asked.

"Fine," he assured. "But that's not all. About two hours ago, Allison, Joshua, Kelsey, Madison, Marcus, and Cole all shifted. They have their hands pretty full at home."

"How's your mom doing?" I asked immediately, realizing that now three of her four children were wolves.

"She's shaken up, but alright. She saw it coming with Alexis, but Cole was a surprise. He's actually more than a year older than I was though."

"Wow…" I said. "And everyone is alright?"

"Well, Jacob's been awake for almost forty-eight hours, but other than that, they're good."

Checking my phone then, I had texts from Jenny and my mother, informing me of what had happened.

"Do you mind if I call over there to make sure everything is okay?" Nick asked me.

"No," I said. "Please do."

Nick hit a few buttons on his phone, and I recognized Joel's voice on the other end. "Hey," Nick said. "How are they?"

"They're fine," Joel said. "Cole's grown like six inches in two hours."

Nick chuckled. "Well," he said. "I'm sure that makes him happy."

Joel scoffed. "It sure does." He took a deep breath. "By the way, there's something we didn't tell you."

Nick looked at me. "Please don't tell me mom is pregnant again."

"What?" Joel said. "Why would you even think that?"

"I don't know!" Nick said defensively. "That's always what it sounded like when you told me the last times."

"Nick, your mom is in her forties."

"So?"

"So that wouldn't even make sense!"

"Fine," Nick said. "What is it that you didn't tell me?"

Joel laughed, and it even sounded awkward. "Well," he said. "All of your cousins imprinted on each other."

There was one moment of absolute silence. "What the hell," I finally said.

Joel laughed again. "Basically, our reactions."

"Wait," Nick said. "I'm really struggling with this one. Who imprinted on whom?"

"Brandon and Alexis imprinted on each other. Kristin and David imprinted on each other. Allison and Cole imprinted on each other. Joshua and Madison imprinted on each other. Kelsey and Marcus imprinted on each other."

"Holy hell on fire," Nick said. "That's like inbreeding!"

"Yes," Joel said calmly. "Trust me, they all had that realization about the same time. It was really fun to watch them all realize it."

"I'm freaked out," Nick said.

"Sam and I have talked a lot," Joel said. "And Sam thinks it's the way that the wolf gene is staying contained. Things like this have happened a lot in the history of the tribe. This is the largest the pack has ever gotten though."

"Well," Nick said. "I always did think it was weird how we had the same amount of girls and boys born at the same time."

"If we're being honest," Joel said. "I've been suspecting something like this was going to happen for a while now."

Nick scoffed. "I think we were all thinking it deep down."

"Yeah," Joel said. "Anyway, how's the honeymoon?"

"Great," Nick said. "This place is really cool. We were out hiking all day. We didn't have any cell service. We both got a flood of text messages when we got back."

Joel laughed. "I'll bet you did. Hey, Paige wants to talk to you if you've got time."

"For my best little sister?" Nick said. "I've always got the time."

Joel chuckled, and I went to go clean up as I heard Paige start babbling to Nick. I stripped myself down and put my dirty clothes in the hamper. I climbed in the shower, and Nick met me in there a few minutes later. "You know," he said, pulling me in close. "I'm really glad I imprinted on you Zemati."

I smiled. "At least I'm not your cousin."

Nick chuckled. "I was thinking about if Jenny and I had imprinted on each other. We would have killed each other."

I laughed. "You guys totally would have."

Nick placed his lips on mine, and I felt the hot water clearing the mud off of my legs. Nick backed me up against the wall of the shower, and pulled away, putting his hands in my hair. He rubbed the base of my hair, pulling leaves out with his rhythmic strokes. I felt his body, and he smiled at me.

This was going to be a fun week.

Exactly six days later, we were driving back into La Push. It was a long, lonely road back to our house, but it was only a few yards from Liam and Jenny's. They had gotten back a day before us, so they were well settled into their new house. They invited us over for dinner on our first night. We got home, unpacked out suitcases, and then walked on over there.

"Hello," Jenny called from the kitchen as we came in.

"Hi," I said.

"I invited our siblings," she told Nick.

"Which ones?"

"The old ones," she responded.

"Alright," Nick said.

"Where's Liam?" I asked her.

"He had patrol," she said. "With Alexis actually."

"When do you have it Jen?" Nick asked her.

"Two am tomorrow morning."

"Me too!" Nick said.

"Lovely," Jenny said. "We get to be with each other in the middle of the night."

I laughed. "Do you guys bicker the whole time?"

"Pretty much," they both said at the same time.

Liam and Alexis got there then, and Nick started talking to both of them rapidly. I went into the kitchen to help Jenny with dinner, and Alexis came in after a minute or so.

"So," Jenny said quietly, and I felt the mood of the kitchen change. "I think I might be pregnant."

Alexis choked on the water she was drinking, but didn't say anything.

"Wow," I said. "Really?"

She nodded. "I haven't said anything to Liam yet."

The boys were both still talking to each other in the other room. Brandon had just got here, and he and Nick had a lot to catch up on. "Well," Alexis said. "You could always take a test."

"I bought one this morning," Jenny said. "I haven't worked up the courage to take it yet."

I looked at her, and then into the other room at the boys quickly. "Do it now," I said. "I can keep dinner going."

She ran her hand through her hair. "I'm scared to death."

"It would be worse not to know," I said gently.

She stood there for one moment, and then gave me a determined nod. "I'll be back," she said.

She was only gone for a few moments, but I knew she wouldn't know the answer for twenty minutes. She looked nervous as we finished up dinner, but she managed to not go back there to check it before her twenty minutes were up. She gave me one scared look before going back there, but didn't hesitate. I knew the answer before I even saw her.

"Liam…" Jenny called from the bathroom.

He stood up quickly, looking confused. I knew he heard the same scared tremble in her voice that I did. "What's wrong?" he asked her, meeting her at the doorway to their bathroom.

"Uh…" she said, holding out the test to him.

He looked very confused for a moment, but then the reality dawned on him. "Oh…" he said. "Jen…"

"I know," she said. He put his arm around her shoulders, and put the test down on the bathroom counter.

"Is everything alright?" Nick said, somewhat awkwardly.

"Um," Jenny said. "Sort of. I'm pregnant."

Nick just stood there, and I heard Brandon choke on his water the same way Alexis had. Alexis roughly patted his back. "Well," Nick said eventually. "You've got a lot of family to support you. We're all here if you need anything."

Jenny nodded, and I saw her fighting back her tears. "I'm just scared," she said.

Liam pulled her into a hug, holding her tight. "Don't be scared," he said. He let her go, and she walked toward the living room, leaning against the living room wall.

"Well Brandon," she said. "You're going to be an uncle."

"I'm gathering this," Brandon said.

Jenny chuckled dryly. "Dad's going to flip."

"Mom's going to be excited," Brandon said.

Jenny laughed, full heartedly this time. "You've got that right."

"Ryan's not even going to know," Brandon said. "That kid's oblivious."

Jenny and Brandon both laughed, and I smiled. They were very right about their little brother.

"My mom's going to have a heart attack," Liam said, giving a grim, sarcastic smile. "She's going to freak out."

"We should probably break it to them gently," Jenny said. "We can go over after dinner. Speaking of which, it's ready."

Dinner was lighthearted, and I could tell that Jenny was warming up to the idea of her being pregnant. It would be hard, but they wouldn't be alone. We talked about the recent shifts. Now that the older kids had shifted, Caleb, Jeremy, Matt, Lucas, Nathan, Kyle, and Wyatt were all slowly stopping shifting. Along with them not shifting, Michael, Lyssie, Mikayla, Natalie, Jocelyn, Amber, Kaitlyn, Nicole, and Ashley were going to stop shifting as well. They wanted to grow old with each other, and with their children. Though, at the rate it was going, it was looking like their kids would be immortal for at least a little while. When we finished dinner, all six of us decided to go over to the Uley's. Jenny and Liam didn't mind if we were there, and we in all honesty wanted to see Sam's and Emily's reactions. Jenny told me that we could be their moral support.

We decided to walk to the Uley's. It was a long walk, but we could all cut through the woods a little bit. When we got there, Emily was surprised to see us, but invited us in anyway. She asked Nick and I about our trip, and offered us drinks. Both of us declined, but told her about our trip. Sam was sitting on the couch reading the paper, and Ryan was in his room. Allison was doing something on the computer.

Jenny took a seat in the recliner across from her father, and Emily sat down next to Sam. "Well," Jenny said, when there was a lull in the conversation. "You guys should probably know that I'm pregnant."

Sam looked up, and slowly folded the paper closed. "What?" he said.

"I'm pregnant Dad," Jenny said.

Allison spun around. "Jen…" she said, sounding the same way Liam had before.

"I know," Jenny said.

Emily cleared her throat. "That's great Jenny," she said. "You'll never regret it."

Jenny smiled a little. "I'm scared to death," she said.

Emily stood up and gave her oldest daughter a hug. "It'll be fine," she said. "It'll be great."

Sam put his right hand on his head, rubbing his temple. "My baby's having a baby," he said.

"Sam," Liam said. "It's going to be okay."

Sam scoffed. "I think I'm supposed to be the one telling you that."

Liam smiled. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll get another chance."

"I officially will be calling you grandpa from now on," Nick said, talking to Sam. "Solely to freak you out."

Sam shook his head. "I'm going to beat you."

"You'd have to catch me first old man."

"You're not going in the right direction here kid," Sam said, smiling. He looked at Jenny. "Congratulations," he told her.

Jenny laughed. "Thanks," she said. Allison gave her sister a hug then, and I could clearly see the resemblance between the two of them in that moment. They could almost be twins.

"You're not pregnant are you?" I heard the question, and realized that Sam was talking to me.

I burst into laughter. "No," I said. "I just came to see the show."

He laughed. "Well, I hope we entertained."

That night, Nick and I were lying in bed. I was reading a French translation of one of my favorite books. Nick had to be up and running in a few hours though, so he was trying to get some sleep. He rolled over so he was facing me, and scooted a little closer. "Do you still want kids?" he asked me.

I put my book down and looked at him. "After how Jenny reacted you mean?"

"Yes," he said.

I thought about it for a moment. "Yes," I said. "Without a doubt."

Nick was quiet for a few moments. "So… do you want to make that the goal?"

I considered for a little while. "I would be alright with that," I said. "If that's what you want."

Nick nodded. "That's what I want." He sighed, and rolled over onto his back. "I feel like that's what I was meant to do."

I cocked my head at him. "Well, Sam has always said that we imprint to continue the existence of the wolf gene. We imprint so that we can reproduce."

Nick nodded. "I know," he said. "It just feels so animalistic. I feel like I'm pressuring you."

I scoffed. "Oh don't worry," I said. "That is not happening at all."

He smiled at me. "If you're sure," he said. "We can start trying to have a baby."

"Sounds like a plan to me," I said.

I reached over and shut off the lamp by our bed. I slid further under the covers, and curled up next to Nick. He wrapped his arms around me, and I pushed my leg between his two warm thighs. He kissed my forehead, just like he had on our first night, and we both drifted off to sleep.

When I awoke in the middle of the night, he wasn't there. I looked at the clock on the night table, and realized that he would be back in only a few minutes. Sure enough, I heard him jogging up to our front door after only a little while. He walked into the kitchen first, and I heard him getting a drink of water. He put the cup in the sink, and then walked quietly to our bedroom. I was swaddled up in blankets still, so I couldn't see him as he came in. He climbed carefully into his side of the bed, and I scooted closer to him.

"Hello," I whispered.

"Hi," he said, brushing my hair back.

"About what we were talking about a few hours ago…" I said. I put my lips to his, and moved my hands to his hips.

He chuckled as he pulled away. "Right now?" he asked.

"Oh yes," I said. "I hope you aren't too tired…"

But he was already pressed on top of me. We didn't hesitate now, not nervous anymore. I got my hands around his shorts, and yanked them down. He climbed out of them quickly, my shirt already off. I didn't sleep in a bra, so that barrier was already gone. He put his big, strong hands on my shoulders, holding me down as his mouth attacked my breasts, kissing them, sucking them, licking them. I used my legs to pull him closer to me, and he collapsed on me willingly. He got my shorts off, and I teased him with my hands.

We rolled over so that I was on top, and I went to work. I kissed his chest, feeling his muscles tense the lower I went. I didn't hesitate as I got to his legs, kissing in between them too.

"Zemati…" he said, gripping the sheets with his hands.

I looked up and laughed at him. "Come and get me," I said, jumping off the bed and running toward the door. He sat up, and I could see how close he had been by the way he was sweating. He laughed good-heartedly, and chased me out to the living room.

He caught up to me at the couch and pushed me onto it. I only let him be in control for a second, and then I swung my leg across him, straddling him. He relaxed into the couch, and his hands traced up and down my whole body. I was on top this time, completely in control. I slowly slid onto him, and he groaned. I felt him expanding inside of me, and I held onto his shoulders, taking a deep breath.

We started moving together then, gyrating in the same rhythm. I gasped, slowly pumping off and onto him. He leaned up to suck my hard breasts, and I was a goner. He released his warmth into me, and gripped my hips, helping me guide myself into the right place. His hands were twisting my skin, but the pain made it better.

He moaned as he climaxed, and I kept going. He was yelling quietly, his breaths gasps. I laughed breathlessly, and he pushed me onto the floor. He was on top of me, giving me what I wanted. His hands seemed practiced, though I knew they were a novice in this new world. He let my lower half rest as he got me worked up on the top. He pulled my hair, biting my ears gently. He fondled my breasts, tracing circles on them and rubbing them with his palm.

He moved one hand to my lower half, rubbing me with rhythmic, hard hands. He spread my sore legs for me, and our eyes met, me giving him permission before he entered. I was so worked up it was only a moment before I was climaxing, hardly able to breathe, only able to see him, and only feel his body within mine. He pulled out slowly, leaving me aching, yet completely ecstatic.

He rubbed the inside of my thighs slowly, massaging out the sore muscles. He laid down next to me on the floor then, and pulled me close. "You going to make it?" he asked.

I smiled. "Oh yes," I said.

He laughed. "That was the best."

"I couldn't agree more," I said, leaning into him.

"Does it hurt you much?" he asked.

I let him stroke my hair, fanning it out behind me. "Sometimes," I said. "The first time was the worst."

He nodded. "I felt some resistance."

"Usually it's alright," I said. "Though it's hard having my legs spread like that for so long."

"Hm," he said, rubbing my lower back. "I'm sorry."

I smiled. "It's alright," I said. "A little pain is good sometimes. It makes me tougher."

He frowned. "I don't like you being in pain."

"I know," I said. "But hey, if we're having a baby, you might want to get used to it now."

Nick held me closer, cradling me like a baby. "It's going to be hard to watch," he said.

I nestled into him. "It'll be fast. Nessie told me she was only about an hour each time."

"It'll be a hard hour," he said.

"I know," I said again. "Just hold my hand, let me yell, and I'll be good."

He chuckled. "If you say so."

The first four months of our marriage flew by. I started my online classes after a successful summer of interning. The classes were easy, but I liked learning the new material. We tried to make a little baby inside of me at least five times a week, but to no avail. Mother Nature brought me her gift over and over again. Claire and Jenny were both showing after only about three months. They had heard a solid, steady heartbeat inside of Claire only a few weeks after the accident, and she and Quil were thrilled. Jenny, just like her mother, had a lot of morning sickness in her first trimester. I had been over there at least twice when Liam had patrol, helping to take care of her. She was feeling much better though these days. She and Claire were both absolutely glowing.

I was getting pretty jealous of the two of them to be honest. I wanted a baby more and more, and Nick and I just couldn't make it happen. Our marriage wasn't affected by it, but my confidence sure was.

Nick came home one night, and I was an absolute mess. I was sitting on the couch, trying to read my history textbook, but to no avail. I had my head in my hands, and the tears had just started when he came in the door.

"Hey…" he said. "Zemati, what's wrong?"

He slid his arm around my shoulders. "I'm sorry," I said.

"For what?" he asked.

"For not being pregnant…" I said, sniffling.

"That's not your fault," he told me, rubbing my arm. "We're working on it."

"Oh come on," I said. "I'm not able to do the one thing a woman's supposed to be able to do and it's not my fault?"

"Zemati," Nick said. "Please baby, don't cry. This is my fault as much as it is yours. Maybe we aren't trying hard enough. We've both been tired lately. Maybe we aren't paying close enough attention to your cycle. Maybe we're doing it too late at night. Maybe you're not hunting enough, maybe I'm not eating good enough. It could be a whole bunch of things."

My hands were shaking, but I tried to steady them. "I feel like I've failed you," I said.

"No," he said immediately. "Never. We can do this," he said. "We have a long time. Forever actually."

"I'm sorry," I said again.

"No need to be," he said, wiping the tears off my cheeks. "We're going to be okay."

Sure enough, that was the week my period was supposed to come. It didn't come the day it was supposed to, or the day after that, or the day after that. I didn't tell Nick, because I didn't want to get his hopes up. I bought a pregnancy test at the drug store, and took the test before I talked myself out of it. Nick was out running patrol, and I knew I had a good hour to soak in what the answer was, whether it was good or bad.

I took the test, and did everything I could to distract myself for twenty minutes. I was well caught up on my lectures, and was actually ahead of schedule in all of my classes. Weekends were usually pretty boring. I cleaned the kitchen floor, making it shine. I read the next chapter of my book, and only ten minutes had passed at that point. I did some yoga, even balancing on my head for a while. When the timer finally went off, I sprinted to the test as quickly as I could. I picked it up with shaking, nervous hands.

Positive.

I was pregnant! I let out an excited shriek, jumping around like an idiot. I fist pumped the air, the test still in my hand. I was ecstatic. I had to tell somebody or I was going to explode. I sprinted out the front door and straight to Jenny's house, shooting past the front door my first time and having to circle back.

I pounded on her door, and she called for me to come in. She was working on an assignment for school it looked like, and Liam was reading a textbook. "Hey," she said to me.

"I'm pregnant!" I bursted out.

"What?" she said. "Really?"

"Really!"

I showed her the pregnancy test, but could barely stand still long enough for her to read it. "Woo-hoo!" she said. "I didn't even know you guys were trying."

"Oh yes," I said. "We worked our butts off."

She laughed. "Sounds like it." She touched her belly. "This little guy is very excited for you. He just started moving around last week."

She put my hand on her belly, and I could feel the baby moving around rapidly.

"Wow!" I said. "That's amazing."

"Have you told Nick?" she asked me.

"Nope," I said. "He's on patrol right now." I jumped up and down. "I've got to go tell Nessie, and my parents."


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER SIX**

I sprinted to my parents first. My family reacted appropriately, jumping around in excitement. My mother was close to tears she was so happy for me. She knew how much we had been trying, and had been praying for our good luck. My mother and aunt wanted to do the nursery. They were also excited to buy little tiny baby clothes. My father told me congratulations, but then he had to head out for work.

I visited for a few minutes, but I really wanted to tell Nessie. She was the first person I told when we were trying to have a baby, because I thought she might be able to give me some tips. She would be thrilled. I sprinted to her house. Eila answered the door.

"Hi," she said.

"Hey," I said. "Is your mom here?"

Nessie came out from her kitchen, wiping her hands with a towel. "What's up?" she said.

"I'm pregnant!" I said for the third time that day.

She put her hands in the air. "Yes!" she said. "I am so excited right now!"

She ran to me and wrapped me in a hug. "What did Nick say?"

I laughed. "I haven't told him yet."

She chuckled. "Who have you told?"

"My parents and Jenny," I said. "And now you."

She laughed fully this time. "That's great. When I found out I was pregnant with Eila, I told my parents and Emily."

Jacob stuck his head out from Cade's bedroom. "Z!" he called.

"Yes?" I said.

"You're pregnant?"

"Yes!" I said, smiling.

He fist pumped. "Cade," he said. "There's going to be more kids like you and Eila!"

I sighed, still smiling. "Kids," I said. "Let's just start with kid."

"Right," Jacob said. "One step at a time."

Nessie patted me on my back. "When is Nick done with patrol?"

I looked at my watch. "About five minutes. Do you mind if I wait here for him? He'll find me."

"Of course not," Nessie said. "I want to see his reaction." She laughed again, going back into the kitchen.

I sat down for the first time since finding out, and looked over at Eila. She was practicing a piece on the piano, but turned to look at me when I sat down. "We'll have another hunting buddy!" she said excitedly.

I laughed. "Yeah," I said. "We will won't we?"

"I can help you hunt for her," Eila said. "I helped my mom when Cade was a baby. I was pretty small though, so I could only get the little animals."

I nodded. "That's very nice of you," I said. "Thank- you."

Just then, I heard Nick outside. He was slowly making his way up the driveway, probably tracing my scent here. Eila got up to let him in.

"Hey Eila," he said as she opened the door. "Is Zemati here?"

"Yeah," she said, pointing at me. I was already standing up.

"Hey," I said.

"Hi," he said. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh you know," I said. "Just hanging out."

He smiled. "You seem wound up. What's going on?"

I smiled, laughing as he saw right through my façade. "Guess what I did this morning?"

He shrugged his shoulders, smiling at me. "I have no idea, washed the car?"

I laughed. "No…" I pulled out the pregnancy test from my back pocket. I showed it to him, but barely gave him a second to register what it was. "I found out that I'm pregnant."

It took Nick just a second to put the pieces together. He looked at the pregnancy test, then back at me, processing what I said. "Really?" he asked, his smile increasing.

"No joke," I said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Yes!" he said, fist pumping the air. He picked me up and swung me around. "I can't even believe it!"

"Believe it," I said as he sat me down. We were both laughing hysterically, and Nessie and Eila joined in. "You know," I said. "This would explain why I was crying the other day."

He laughed. "I suppose it would."

Jacob and Cade came out of his room then. "Nick," Jacob said. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Nick said. Jacob shook his hand and then gave him an awkward hug.

"And congratulations," Jacob said. "You're going to enjoy this."

Nick laughed. "I'm scared to death," he said.

"Me too," I agreed, the nerves finally setting in.

"You're both going to be fine," Nessie said.

"Easy for you to say," I reminded her.

She shrugged. "True," she said. "True."

Nick and I stayed with the Blacks for a little while, but we both wanted to go tell Joel and Leah. Nessie told me she would have Carlisle fax her the records of her pregnancy so I could read them. Nick and I crossed the street to his parents' house. Everyone was home except for Cole who was out running patrol. Nick knocked on the door. "Anyone home?" he called.

"Come on in," Leah said. We both walked into the house. "Hey there," she said, looking up at us. "What's up?"

I smiled at her, and I think she knew before I said anything. "I'm pregnant," I said.

Her mouth dropped open. "That's great!" She turned her head toward the back of the house. "Joel!" she called.

He was already walking down the hallway. "Did I just hear what I think I did?" he asked.

"If you heard that I'm going to be a father," Nick said. "Then yes."

Joel took three large steps across the room and pulled his son into a hug. "That's awesome!" he said. He hugged me next, kissing the top of my head.

Paige poked her head out of her room. "You're pregnant Z?" she asked. I nodded. She punched the air. "That's so exciting!"

"And nerve wracking!" I told her.

"You guys will do great," Leah said. "I know it." She put her head in her hands. "Oh my gosh," she said. "We're going to be grandparents."

I laughed. "Don't worry," I said. "Younger have done it. My mom just had her thirtieth birthday."

Leah laughed. "I suppose you're right."

Nick and I headed to our house after talking with his family for a while. Cole got home towards the end of our visit, and he thumped Nick on the back when he told him that I was pregnant. Once we were home, Nick made himself some lunch, and I texted the other girls that I was pregnant. Everyone went nuts. We were all so excited. This baby was loved by everyone even before he was born.

Nick finished lunch, and came to sit with me on the couch. "Hey you," he said. He pulled me closer to him, and I cuddled into him.

I kissed him on the cheek. "From what Nessie's told me," I said. "This pregnancy goes roughly twice as fast as a normal pregnancy."

Nick rubbed my belly with his hand. "Okay," he said. "So you'll be due around the middle of January then?"

I thought for a moment. "Around then," I agreed. I laughed a little. "Jenny is due then too. Claire is due two weeks earlier, but she thinks the dates are a little messed up. She feels like she's two weeks behind where she is supposed to be."

"It's probably the wolf gene," Nick said.

"Likely," I agreed.

I talked with Jenny that night for almost three hours. We were both pretty nervous, but she was enjoying this trimester more. She told me the sex was great, and I heard Liam tell her that was too much information. I laughed at how open we were with our personal lives. I went to bed a little early, worn out from all of the excitement of the day. Nick climbed into bed about an hour after me, but I was still awake. My brain was still whirring, keeping me awake. Nick had just got out of the shower.

He crawled into bed, and I got a good whiff of his soap. The scent was over whelming, and I gagged. My stomach churned. I was running for the bathroom before he even realized what happened. I got to the toilet and vomited so hard it hurt. I heaved even after my stomach was empty. Nick held my hair back, and rubbed my back, trying to comfort me.

I finally stopped heaving, and I flushed the toilet. "Wow," I muttered. I had never puked before, never once in my entire life. It wasn't in my makeup.

"What happened?" Nick asked.

I shook my head. "I got a good whiff of your soap, and then I gagged."

Nick frowned. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't know you didn't like it."

I shook my head. "Normally I love it. But tonight, it made me puke."

Nick thought for a moment. "Could it be because of the pregnancy?"

"This early?" I said.

Nick shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Let's look online."

We went to the computer and typed it in on a search engine. It turned out it probably was from my pregnancy. Apparently being super sensitive to smell was common in the first few weeks of pregnancy. They suggested that Nick start using an unscented soap. He told me that he would pick some up from the store tomorrow after his shift as a 911 operator, and before he had to run patrol.

He carried me to bed, and I fell asleep shrouded in his suffocating warmth.

The first week of my pregnancy seemed pretty normal. I felt fine, and didn't even notice anything different. I had no problem with Nick's scent after he changed his soap, and Jenny was right, the sex was fantastic. My second week of pregnancy though, I started getting some morning sickness.

I woke up at the start of that second week, and immediately felt a wave of nausea come over me. I squirmed out of Nick's arms, booking it to the bathroom. I didn't even flip on the light. I was puking as I heard Nick hopping out of bed. He ran into the bathroom, and turned on the dim light. He helped hold back my hair again, and wrapped his arm around me. I didn't have much to puke up, I had been hunting almost two days previously. I flushed the toilet, and closed the lid. I gave him a weary look.

"Morning sickness?" he asked. I nodded. He pulled me onto his lap, and cradled me like a baby. "I'm sorry," he said. "Are you feeling any better now?"

I shrugged. "I feel weak," I said. "But not sick."

He touched my face. "You look a little more pale than usual. Have you hunted recently?"

"About two days ago," I said.

He nodded. "You should probably go today if you feel up to it."

I nodded. "I was planning on it." I slumped against him.

"You know," he said. "If you ever need help with hunting, I can help you."

I nodded. "You don't need to see that," I said. "It would be a little dangerous for you anyways. We go pretty nuts when we're out there. I can get the kids to bring me the small stuff if I ask them. Nessie wouldn't even hesitate to haul a large animal over to me either. She has no shame when hunting." We both chuckled.

"I just feel so helpless," Nick said.

I kissed his cheek. "If I need you," I said. "I know you'll be there. That's not helpless at all."

He rocked me again, and a few minutes later, he carried me back to bed. I got a few more hours of sleep, and felt just fine when I woke up. I hunted that night, taking Cade with me. Eila and Nessie weren't thirsty, so it was just us. We talked a little. He was happy with his teachers at school this year. He liked the middle school a lot better than he had liked the elementary school. He responded well to having kids from other grades in his class, and he liked having more than one teacher. We finished, and I ran him home. I was pretty tired at that point, and was in bed when Nick came home from patrol at nine o'clock.

The next month of my pregnancy slipped by. My morning sickness was mercifully short lived, and had only lasted about two weeks. Nick was being great. I was pretty cranky at night, but he was very tolerant. He had patrol at six am one Saturday, and after he left, falling back asleep was hopeless. The cold autumn was settling in on Forks, and the bed felt so much colder without him. I got up and grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt. I put on a bra, and my shirt. It felt tight, but it was form fitting. I pulled the jeans up and tried to button them. They felt so _tight_. I tried twice to pull them around my middle, and then realized what was going on. I ran into our closet, and shut the door so I could use the full length mirror. I pulled up my shirt, and looked at my stomach in the dim closet light.

There, in the middle of my hips, was a small little protruding bump.

I traced over it with my fingers, and felt how firm it was. It was small, but in jeans this tight, they wouldn't button. I smiled to myself, and put my hand the bump. That was our baby. "Hi there," I said. "I see that you've decided to make an appearance."

I traded my pair of jeans for some that were looser fitting, and figured I would probably have to go talk to Ashley about borrowing some of her maternity clothes. She told me I could have all of them a few weeks ago when I had seen her. She was about my size, so they should mostly fit. I took extra care on my hair that day, and even put some makeup on. Nick got home just as I was coming out of the bathroom.

"Hey there," he said. "You're up early." He took a good look at me. "You look nice today," he said.

I walked into his open arms, and he gave my forehead a kiss. I took his hand, and put it on my belly. He didn't react for a second, but then felt the firm bump.

"Wow…" he said.

I smiled. "I'm showing," I said, grinning from ear to ear.

"You are," he said. "And you look fantastic doing it." He rubbed the small little bump. "That's our baby…" he trailed off. He kissed my lips then. "I love you," he said.

"I love you too," I told him.

He knelt down then, so his head was level with my hips. He slowly peeled back my shirt and put both hands on my belly, surrounding the bump with his hands. "I love you too," he said, putting his lips on the small bump.

His thumbs traced the bump, and I giggled as it tickled a little.

He smiled at me. "This baby is coming soon," he said.

I shrugged. "Sort of. We still have quite a while to get things ready."

Nick stood up, pulling me into his arms again. "Have you been thinking of names?" he whispered, rocking with me from side to side. We were dancing.

I had been thinking about names. "Well," I said. "I suppose we should stick with tradition."

Nick laughed. "But who's names do we combine?"

I smiled. "Well, if it's a boy, we combine our fathers'. If it's a girl, our mothers'."

He put his chin on my forehead. "So if it's a boy…" he said.

I thought, saying our father's names over and over again. Joel Sanjiv, Joel Sanjiv… "How about Josan?" I said a minute later. "Like Joe-San," I broke it down.

Nick nodded. "That's a heck of a lot better than what I came up with."

I laughed, not even wanting to know. "What if it's a girl?" I asked.

I tried the same method. Amari Leah, Amari Leah…

Nick got there first. "How about Marah?" he said. It sounded like Mar-uh.

I looked up at him, smiling. "That's perfect," I said. "Her middle name can be Ivel. That combines the last two letter of our dads' names."

Nick laughed then. "That's perfect," he said. "It's got some character."

My pregnancy continued to slide by. Before I knew it, I was two-and-a-half months pregnant. I was expecting to deliver after about four-and-a-half months, so I was a little over half way. I had felt the baby move just a little bit, but he was very calm otherwise. I was a little worried that I couldn't feel the kicks very much, but Nessie told me that's how she was with Cade. He was way more still than Eila was, and she was three months pregnant before she could really feel him move around. Her past knowledge comforted me.

It was thanksgiving in La Push, and we were spending the day at the big white house the Cullens had vacated. The male eagles all lived there now, and the females had too before they were married. A couple weeks previously, Ryan and Paige had shifted. And of course, they imprinted on each other. The three youngest Uley's had imprinted on the three youngest Marquie's, and the families were closer than ever at this point. Nick now had all of his siblings out there with him. He said that Paige was fantastic. She was way calmer than Alexis, and even more relaxed than Jenny. Jacob insisted that she was the equivalent of Joel, but Nick thought she was more like his mother. Then again, he had never been inside of his parents' heads the way Jacob had been. My parents were going to visit the Denali clan for the thanksgiving holiday, but they would be back late tomorrow night. My father had to work.

Everyone was getting together for the holiday. The house was crowded, but I liked it that way. It was the way I always remembered it. Nick and I were in charge of bringing deviled eggs, and we had made ten dozen of them. We didn't want anyone to go hungry. We weren't the first ones to the house, but we weren't the last either. The Blacks weren't there yet, and neither were the Clearwaters, or Collin's family, or Brady's family.

We were supposed to have our meal at one o'clock, and at 1:15, the four missing families still remained missing. Just then, Nessie pulled up. She had Sydney, Aubrey, and Mitchell, along with her two kids. I knew what had happened as soon as I saw her face. She sent the kids upstairs to drop their coats off, and told us what had happened quickly.

"Elizabeth, Evan, Anna, and Tyler all shifted," she said. "And of course, they imprinted on each other. Jake's got his hands full, but he said to tell you all to stay here. He'll bring them by if they can calm down enough."

"What the hell is twelve-year-old imprinting like?" Embry said immediately.

"I don't even want to know," Nessie said, holding her hands up with a smile.

"Eh," Jenny said, put her hand on her lower back. "We were fourteen when we imprinted. It can't be that different."

"Oh yes it can," Liam said immediately. "I didn't know females existed at age twelve. At fourteen, I was all too aware."

A few people chuckled. "Great," I said. "We're going to have a bunch of hormonal teenagers on our hands."

The kids were back then, and I didn't know how much their parents wanted them to know. We kept quiet about it, and there was plenty else to talk about. Everyone liked our ideas for names for the baby, and Nessie thought they were ten times better than what she and Jacob had come up with. Claire and Quil had decided to name their child Christine if it was a girl, and Kevin if it was a boy. Jenny and Liam had decided that they either had a Grant or a Carrie. No one said it, but we were all pairing their names together in our head. Obviously, those kids would imprint on each other. It made me wonder about our little one, and who he would have. Would he, or she, be imprinted on, or would he fall in love? It was hard to say, but he would always have me. No matter what.

Though the house was crowded, it still felt empty because we were missing four kids and seven adults. It wasn't much, but the whole dynamic of the house was different. The meal smelled good, and I almost wanted to eat, but I knew Nessie had had a bad experience with that when she was pregnant with Eila. It was really nice being able to read her pregnancy records and have some expectations for what was to come. Everyone ate until they were stuffed, and I took the younger kids outside to work off some of their energy. Eila stayed inside with her mother, but Cade came out with me, Derek, Alaina, Christopher, Miley, Jon, Jayde, Andrew, Logan, Mackenzie, Jayna, Jason, Aubrey, Noah, Sydney, Mitchell, and Bridgette.

We had only been outside for a few minutes when I heard voices and quick footsteps coming from the woods. I heard cars in the driveway, and realized the kids and their parents had arrived. Jake came walking out of the woods with Elizabeth, Evan, Anna, and Tyler, and I heard their parents coming in the front door. They must have been the cars I heard.

"Hey," Jacob said, patting Cade on the back as he walked up the backyard. "Happy Thanksgiving," he said to me as he walked past me and into the house.

"Happy Thanksgiving," I said.

Anna and Evan followed Jacob into the house, and they were both smiling like crazy. Those two would be joined at the hip for the rest of their lives. Elizabeth and Tyler were together, but both were talking to two different younger cousins. Elizabeth was letting Sydney play with her long black hair, and Tyler was spinning Aubrey around. Nick came out to watch the kids with me, but as soon as Andrew and Logan saw him, they were messing around with him. They wrestled, boys being boys, and I hoped in that moment that Nick would do that with our son one day.

I was busy watching them, and I was almost too late.

I looked over at Tyler, Aubrey still in his arms. He was shaking, and I recognized immediately the look of anger on his face. His form was vibrating, and I knew he was losing his battle to remain human.

"Aubrey!" I yelled, already sprinting to knock her out of Tyler's arms.

I had tunnel vision. I yanked Aubrey out of Tyler's arms, and took a step back. I saw him about to shift, and turned my back to shelter Aubrey, only able to take one step before I was collided into.

Aubrey and I flew about four feet forward, and she slipped out of my arms. I landed on my stomach, able to only throw my arm between me and my unborn child. Aubrey landed just in front of me, sliding through the muddy grass. Something was on top of me, and I rolled over to Cade climbing off of me, already turning to face Tyler again. I immediately pulled backward, seeing how close Tyler still was.

In the ten seconds that had passed, Nick had seen what was happening. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him running towards us. Nick flew in front of Cade and I, and was a massive gray-black wolf before he hit the ground.

I heard his roaring growl, and watched as he backed Tyler into the woods. Elizabeth was pushing the kids towards the house, and she had grabbed three of the smaller ones up. Cade held his ground in front of me, and I slid backwards again, moving toward Aubrey. I heard the sliding door open, and I heard the controlled fear in parents' voices.

Seth scooped up Aubrey as Tyler and Nick disappeared into the woods, and Jacob followed them. The children were frightened, and the younger ones were in tears, but their parents soothed them immediately.

I was stunned.

I felt the cold seeping through my jeans, and I was scared. I had landed _right on_ the baby. I had only been able to break the fall with my arm a little bit.

"Z," Nessie said, sliding next to me, coming to a squat. "Are you okay?"

I looked at her with wide eyes, fighting to stay calm. "I landed right on the baby."

"Breathe," she said. "Do you feel him moving still?"

I shook my head, completely panicking now. I couldn't feel one nudge.

Just then, Nick came walking back out of the woods, wearing clothing that he must have hidden somewhere back there. It was just a pair of shorts.

"Zemati!" he said, sliding next to me the way Nessie had. Cade was looking over his shoulder nervously. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Just then, the baby kicked hard. I jumped, the relief coming before I could even take a breath. The baby was moving, and more than he ever had before. I jumped again as he jabbed me with a barely formed arm or leg, I couldn't tell.

I laughed, breathless. "I am now," I said. "He's moving around like crazy."

Nessie laughed in relief. "He was just waiting on his father to make his grand entrance," she said.

Nick laughed. "Thank God," he said. "I was really scared."

"I could tell," I said. I looked over his shoulder at Cade. "You may have just saved a life," I told him, giving him a nod. "Or three."

Cade shrugged his shoulders. "I did what needed to be done."

"What happened?" Nessie asked, looking at her son in amazement.

I recapped the story for her, noting how Cade had shoved Aubrey and I out of the way, saving her life, likely my life, and my baby's.

Nessie pulled her son into her arms when I finished telling the story. "I'm proud of you," she said. "But I would rather you save lives without putting yours in danger." She kissed his head, and being a nearly-pubescent boy, he rubbed it off, shaking her away.

She didn't seem to notice. Nick pulled me to my feet, and several people were going back into the house at this point. Jenny was holding Elizabeth to her.

"That was terrifying," Elizabeth said. "Is Tyler going to be okay?" She asked.

"He'll be fine," Jenny said, stroking her hair. "And you'll get used to it."

I smiled, noticing how much Jenny was already a mother to all of these brand-new wolf girls. Late that night, Jacob and Tyler rejoined everyone. Tyler felt really guilty, but no one was blaming him. Most people here had been there at some point. It got later and later, and I found myself on the couch with Jenny on one side of me, and Nick on the other side of me. I didn't realize I was dozing until I woke up and it was much quieter. The little kids had been hoarded into another room so they could watch a movie, and the older ones were in the other room doing something on the computers the eagles kept in the house. It was just adults at this point, or I suppose, children who were being forced to be adults. Brandon, Alexis, Kristin, David, Allison, Joshua, Kelsey, Madison, Marcus, Cole, Eila, Ryan, Paige, Elizabeth, Evan, and Tyler were all still sitting around, talking with each other, talking with their parents, or talking to other members of the family.

I sat my head up slowly. "How long have I been asleep?"

"About an hour," Nick said.

Suddenly, the baby kicked, and I jumped a little. "Wow," I said, suddenly out of breath.

"You've been doing that in your sleep," Nick said.

"It's true," Jenny said from next to me. "I was there."

The baby kicked again, and I laughed. "Uh," I said. "That's the baby."

"What the heck," Claire said. "You just got pregnant like a day ago."

"Yay for vampire genes!" Nessie said, I noticed her watching me from across the room.

I gave her an eyebrow raise. "Is this normal?"

"Nothing is normal," Nessie said. "You're a vampire-human hybrid."

"No, but really," I said.

"You're good," she said. "That's how it was for Cade. The kid didn't move for like the first two and half months and then he decided to take up kick boxing while inside of me."

I nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe it is a boy," I said, looking at Nick.

"I stick to it that it's a girl," he said. Nick and I had both made guesses, but we both thought it was a girl. Now though…. I don't know. His one little ligament that I could feel sure felt boyish to me.

I laughed again. "Okay," I said. "If you say so." The baby kicked again, and I put my hand right where I felt the kick. "This is fast," I said, noting it to myself as much as to anyone else.

"Yes," Nessie said. I met her eyes, and I knew she understood. "And it never stops." She pulled Eila into her side. "They grow up fast too." I wondered why Eila had not changed into a wolf. The kids who were both physically a year older and physically a year younger had all shifted. Maybe she never would change. Maybe it was part of the vampire genes. I suppose only time would tell.


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

I shook my head. "It's really starting to hit me," I said.

"It's been hitting me for ten years," Jacob said.

I looked at Eila, and then at Nessie, choosing my words carefully. "Will they ever stop growing?" I asked Nessie.

Nessie looked at me, and I knew she understood that I was asking if her children were immortal, if my children would be immortal. "We don't know," she said.

"I know," Eila said. "I will stop."

"How do you know Eila?" Jacob asked, and I could see from his expression that Eila had never said anything about this before.

"I just know," she said. "Somehow. Something inside of me knows I'm going to stop."

Nessie and Jacob exchanged a look. "I believe you," Nessie told her daughter.

"Didn't you feel it too?" Eila asked her mother, and then looked at me.

I thought about it for a moment. I had always known that I would stop aging. It was just a fact. I had also known the day that I had stopped aging. I was only about seven and a half, it was just about a year ago.

"I suppose I did," I said. "Or more like, I knew when I was done aging. It woke me up in the middle of the night. No one had to tell me, I just knew."

Nessie nodded her head. "That happened to me as well. I've spoken to Nahuel, and he told me the same thing happened to him and his sisters. They didn't think anything of it."

"Do you know when you will stop growing?" Jacob asked Eila.

Eila shrugged her shoulders. "I'm more or less two thirds of the way there. I would say that I will stop when I am fifteen, but I'll probably look more like I'm nineteen or twenty."

"So its like an internal clock," Nick said.

"Yes," Eila said. "Cade has it too. We've talked about it."

"Well then," Jacob said. "Thanks for keeping us out of the loop. We've been worried about this since before you were born."

Eila gave him a look. "Hey now," she said. "You never asked."

"Ha," I said. "I wanted to know."

Jacob stuck his tongue out at me.

I don't know what time Nick finally brought me into the house that night. I was walking half asleep. I remember him taking my shoes off, and me putting my pajamas on in a daze, but I have no memory of my head actually hitting the pillow.

I woke up in the middle of the night cold. I had scooted over to the far side of the bed, laying on my side. I felt a strong kick, and I jumped, completely waking myself up. I put my hand on my growing bump, rubbing the spot where the kick had been, trying to soothe my unborn child in his unrest.

I rolled over, and slid closer to Nick. My movements woke him up, and he pulled me closer to him in a sleepy haze. Our little guy was tucked in the middle between us, our skin the only barrier between him and us. He kicked hard as my belly touched Nick's, and I jumped again, breathless. That really woke Nick up.

"Are you okay?" he whispered.

"Yeah," I whispered back. I had an idea then. I took Nick's hand in mine, and set it on my belly. His large hand covered the majority of my still-small bump. "Just wait," I said.

I messed with his hair with one hand, and I had my other hand wrapped around him.

Right on cue, our little kicker really nailed me, and I gasped.

Nick's bright blue eyes looked up at me, and his mouth turned into a grin. "She's strong," Nick said.

I chuckled. "Oh yes," I said. "I'm just trying to get him to calm down enough so I can get back to sleep."

Nick rubbed my belly. "Sh," he said, looking down at out little kicker. "It's sleeping time now."

I giggled. "He sleeps when I walk. It's like I'm rocking him or something. He's been getting excited every time I calm down. It wakes him right up."

I took a few deep breaths. "Though," I said. "He does seem to be relaxing now that he knows his daddy is here."

"Daddy," Nick said. "Now that's a name I've never been called be for."

"Don't be scared," I said. "We've got this."

Nick laughed, and kissed my forehead. I slowly drifted off to sleep again, and when I woke up, Nick's hand was still pressed on my belly. The baby had only made slight movements all night, nothing to wake me up with though.

My pregnancy was literally speeding by. Christmas came and went, and all that had changed was the size of my belly. I felt enormous, but Abbey assured me that I was actually below average weight. She called me scrawny little pregnant Indian girl for that matter. Nick enjoyed that one.

It was New Year's Eve, and I was counting down the days until I gave birth. We were spending the evening with Nick's parents, as well as the Blacks and Uley's. My dad was working, and my other family members were occupying themselves with other things.

I was sitting on the couch with Nick. It was dinner time, but I wasn't eating of course. Nessie was sitting on my left, and this small fraction of my extended family sat around me. Our little guy was kicking me to a pulp, but I was toughing it out.

"How long until you think you're due?" Leah asked me after she swallowed a bite of food.

"Well," I said. "I am roughly the equivalent of being eight months pregnant. So I'd say we're due in about two weeks."

"Wow," Leah said. "Are you guys all ready?"

"Ready," Nick scoffed. "What does that mean anyway?"

Leah laughed. "I guess I'm asking if you have all of your stuff."

"I think so," I said. "My mom put the finishing touches on the nursery two days ago. It looks awesome, whether it's for a girl or for a boy. She told me that she has some ideas to make it look more boy or girl like after the baby is born, either way."

"That's good," Leah said. "I'll have to see it the next time I'm over there."

"Sure," I said.

Suddenly, the baby kicked. Hard.

I gasped, and heard a sound like splintering wood. I felt a stabbing pain in my upper left side. "Oh," I said, clenching my teeth together.

"Whoa there," Nick said. "Did anyone else hear that?"

He had his arm around me, holding my other arm, keeping me from moving forward.

"I think he just broke a rib," I said, doing my best not to moan as the pain of just breathing hit me.

"That's what it sounded like to me," Nessie said. "Are you hanging in there?"

"Mostly," I said, but I knew Nick would hear the pain in my voice.

"I already texted Abbey," Leah said. "She's on her way over now. She says to try and put all of your weight on the couch, and to take shallow breaths. She'll wrap you up really tight."

"Right," I said. I could feel myself healing already, but I knew it would be about two days before the bone was completely healed. I looked at Nick. "Just go slow," I said.

Keeping his arm around me, he slowly started to lay me back. "Imagine you're being sucked into my arm," Nick said. "Just try and put your weight on me."

I tried to sink back onto his arm, but it hurt to breathe, much less move. I bit my lip and tried not to moan as I felt the baby move again. "Shallow breaths," Nessie reminded me.

I felt my back touch the couch, and winced as Nick pulled his arm out from behind me. "There you go," Nessie said. "Now we just have to wait for Abbey." Nick grabbed my hand, and I held on for dear life.

"Well," I said, completely breathless. "This is an unexpected turn of events."

Everyone laughed, and I realized how quiet the room had been before that. There were quiet conversations all around me, but I just tried to stay focused on breathing, and squeezing the life out of Nick's fingers every time the baby moved. I heard a knock on the door, and knew it was Abbey.

Cole opened the door for her, and told her happy new year.

"Hi," she said, as she came around the couch to me. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm alright," I said. "It only hurts when he moves."

"Okay," she said. "Well," she rubbed her hands together. "I've never wrapped a broken rib before, but I know how to do it."

"I trust you," I told her, and I meant it completely.

"Let's move you to somewhere in the back. No one needs to see what's about to go down."

I smiled, holding in my laughter because I knew it would hurt. "That's not reassuring."

It took about five minutes to get me off the couch, into Nick's arms, and down the hall, but we got there eventually. I was lying on the floor in Cole's bedroom. I had to take my shirt off, but hey, it was just Nick and Abbey there. What the hell did I have to hide? Nick lifted my upper back off the ground by putting his hands under my lower back, and that hurt pretty bad, but it put Abbey in the perfect position to get me all wrapped up. As soon as the bone couldn't move anymore, I felt great. She told me I would have to leave the wrap on all night, and all day tomorrow, but I could take it off late tomorrow night. She and Carlisle had studied the healing rate of me, the wolves, Nessie, and her children, so they had their stuff down pat.

The New Year came with loud cheers from my family, and large celebrations all over the world. I knew that next year at this time, Nick and I would have a toddler running around.

I knew it was just a matter of time before I went into labor. I was a little worried that it would happen when Nick wasn't there, or when I was completely alone, but I knew I had no control over the matter. Jenny and Claire were both chomping at the bit to meet their little ones, and I wondered if I would deliver at the same time as them.

One night toward the end of my pregnancy, Nick was working the night shift. It was only about eight o'clock, but he would be working until midnight. I was working on reading the last chapter of my history book, and had just finished when the house phone rang. I waddled my way over to the phone, our little kicker going crazy inside of me.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hello there," I recognized Jenny's voice.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Well," she said. "I am currently at Claire's house. We both went into labor about an hour ago. We were expecting a call from you."

I put my hand on my belly and laughed. "Well," I said. "I hate to disappoint, but I think our little guy is entirely too comfortable inside my uterus."

Jenny laughed. "Okay then," she said. "If you want to come over, we'd love your company and support."

I laughed again. "You know," I said. "I think I'll head over. Nick's working, and I've got nothing better to do. I'll be there in about ten minutes."

"See you soon," she said.

I sent Nick a text letting him know where I was. He'd get it when he got off of work. When I got to Claire and Quil's house, it looked like things were moving pretty slowly. The twins had been deposited to Seth, but I knew they would sleep through the majority of their new sibling's birth.

"Hey," I said when Claire answered the door. "How are things coming along?"

"A bit slow," she admitted. "We're both only at three centimeters."

"How ephased?" I asked.

"One hundred percent for the both of us, but that happened last week."

"Right," I said. "Well, I suppose there's nothing to do but wait."

"Easy for you to say," Jenny said as I came around the corner.

"Eh," I said. "This experience is likely to be traumatizing."

"Oh probably," Jenny said. "I was traumatized by the birth of Claire's twins."

"Hey," Claire said. "We did what we had to do."

They had been really short on handed the night Claire's twins had been born, because eight of the other kids were born that night too. Jenny had had to assist in the delivery, when she was only fourteen.

The girls had slow moving labor, but they were troopers. Jenny just about broke Liam's hands when her water broke, but nothing snapped as far as I could tell. I thought their water breaking would speed them up, but it was almost like they were at a standstill. I was exhausted, and I didn't know how much longer I would last.

Around one am, Jenny told me to go home. She looked like she had been through half of hell, and I didn't want to leave her, but I was exhausted. Claire was sticking it out rather well. She had gotten a good night of sleep the night before, and said the contractions weren't as bad as when she had twins. I believed it.

The cold January air stung my face as I got in my car, and I was grateful that Nick would be there when I got home. He was up waiting for me when I came in, and was anxious to hear any news. I gave him the update, but was so exhausted I pretty much just crawled right into bed. He rubbed my sore lower back for a few minutes as I drifted on into unconsciousness, and I only have faint memories of him climbing into bed after me that night.

We were both jolted awake by one long, withheld, long wolf howl. Nick was scrambling out of bed as I registered that it was Jacob, and I knew that something important must be happening. Nick was out the door before I had even rolled over. He had responded to wolf howls long enough to know that they could be for anything.

As exhausted as I had been when I fell asleep, I was wide awake now. I worried about Nick, and the baby was moving again. I got out of bed and put my house coat on, padding down the hall in my bare feet. I decided to see if there was anything I could cook. I went into the kitchen, and flipped on the light.

The pain in my lower abdomen stopped me in my tracks.

It was like everything had tightened up, and I felt the baby move down. I put my hand on the counter, and held on tight.

I had just gone into labor, and I was completely alone.

I quickly grabbed the house phone, and dialed for Nessie's house. She answered immediately; sounding more awake then I expected her too. Then again, her husband was also out in the woods.

"Hello?" she said.

"I just went into labor," I said, skipping the formalities.

"Of course you did," she said. "I just talked to Abbey about five minutes ago, and Claire and Jenny are super close. You hang tight. I'm going to go get your husband."

It was only about a minute after I hung up with her that the second contraction came. It brought me to my knees, and I was panting, trying not to panic. I needed Nick. I needed him right now. The contraction went on and on, and I did my best to breathe.

As the contraction peaked and died, I caught my breath and walked to the front window. I was searching for any sign of Nick. I couldn't do this alone. The third contraction came, and I braced myself on the wall. My hands balled into fists. I felt like there was a weight being pressed in around my stomach, and like knives were cutting and stretching me open. I moaned, and sank to the ground. I writhed against the contraction, and felt the sweat all over my body.

Just then, I heard the merciful sound of hurried footsteps, and Nick burst through the door.

"Hey," he said quietly and calmly. "How are you doing?"

I met his eyes, and I knew he could see my pain. "It hurts," I said blankly.

"I know baby," he said. He moved so that he was sitting behind me, leaning against the wall. He rubbed his hands up and down my arms. "But you're going to do just fine. Our little one is going to be here soon."

He kissed my forehead, and wrapped his arms around me, resting them just above my bump.

The next contraction came, and my coping mechanisms were useless. The pain was so intense. I felt like I was being stretched in half. Nick was there, and his voice in my ear was calm, if not pained himself. The scream was on my lips and out of my mouth before I could even fight it. I was gasping for air, and couldn't fill my lungs with enough of it. I felt the baby between my legs, and I screamed as he continued to move lower. Nick shoved his hands between my clenched fists, and I held on tight.

"Easy," he said as the contraction eased. "Abbey will be here soon. I'm here right now. You're not alone. The baby's almost here, you're going to be holding her in just a few minutes."

"Nick," I gasped. "We can't wait for Abbey. I need to push."

"Alright," he said, the epitome of calm. "Then push."

The next contraction came as his words were coming out, and I held myself up with my hands as he slid out from behind me. I pushed my head forward, and bore down.

I was on fire.

I could hear nothing, see nothing, just feel the fire in my lower half. I pushed, and pushed again, throwing my head back as the contraction eased.

"Breathe, baby, breathe," Nick was saying. "I can see her head already. Just one more push."

"Nick," I said, my voice hoarse from the screaming. I felt like I was stretched to my limit. "I love you."

"I love you too," he said. "So much."

I spread my legs as far as they would go, and pushed as the fire within me smarted again. I moaned, and yelled as I felt the baby's head slip out, and I opened my eyes. Nick was focused on catching the baby. "Push," he commanded.

I gave that last push everything I had left, and groaned as he left my body.

I heard the cries, and the realization of what had just happened hit me.

"Marah," Nick said, and I heard the raw emotion in his voice. He placed the screaming little girl on my lap, and I cried as I saw her little eyes open just enough to see a splinter of piercing blue.

Nick was covered in blood as he put his hand on her naked little stomach, and I realized how perfect this felt. "Nick," I said. "She's beautiful."

"She's perfect," he agreed, and he reached up to wipe the tears off my cheek. He swiped at the ones on his face too.

Just then I heard a knock on the door, and whoever it was came right in. It was a hectic looking Abbey with Nessie right behind her.

"I'm afraid you missed the show," Nick said.

"Oh my god," Nessie said. "She's beautiful."

"Wow," Abbey said. "How did everything go?"

"Alright I think," I said. "It hurt a lot, but I feel fine."

"Good," she said. She came over and pulled some things out of her bag. She cut the cord, and tied Marah's lifeline off. She rested her hand on my wrist for just a moment, checking my rapid pulse.

"Did the afterbirth come out?" she asked me.

I gave her a blank look. "I couldn't tell you," I said.

"No," Nick said. "Just this little girl."

"I'm going to need you to push that out then," Abbey said. "But don't worry, it's soft, and a lot smaller than little Marah."

Nessie was already coming out of the nursery with a diaper and blanket. "Here," she said. "Let me wrap her up while you take care of that."

I gently handed our squirming, still crying little girl to Nessie, and turned to Abbey. Nick had already crawled back up so that he was sitting next to me. He had his strong arm around my tired shoulders. Abbey put her hand on my lower stomach and pushed down hard. "Push a little," she told me.

I did as she commanded, and felt a small little ball-like sack slip out of me. "There's the placenta," she said. She chuckled. "Alright. I've got nothing else to take out of you."

Nick and I both laughed, and Nessie smiled as she placed a now tightly swaddled Marah in my arms. "She's beautiful," I said, staring at her. Her skin was the color of cinnamon sugar, with black little strands of hair already sticking out the top of head. Her blue eyes were exactly the same color as Joel's, and all of his children.

I remembered the night before suddenly. "Abbey," I said. "How's Claire and Jenny?"

"Exhausted," she said with a smile. "But Claire has a little Christine, and Jenny has a little Grant."

I laughed. "I guess our babies did come at the same time."

"Yeah," Abbey said. "They were born just minutes apart."

I gently shifted Marah into Nick's patient arms, and watched his face as he looked at her. I thought he was going to cry again, but he held it together.

"How's Cade?" he asked Nessie.

I looked at the two of them. "He shifted last night," Nessie informed me. "And he's doing just fine. It scared him to death, but he's alright. Jacob has been with him."

Nick nodded. "They think exactly the same way," he said. "It was pretty freaky."

Nessie chuckled, and then sighed. "I guess maybe Cade changed and Eila didn't because he's a boy. It's kind of like if I had been a boy, I would be venomous."

"It makes sense," Nick said. "The vampire gene comes from your father, so that vampire trait would only be passed down to a male. The wolf gene comes from Jacob, so it's only passed down to a male."

"That's a good way to think of it," Nessie said. "It makes sense to me. Only Eila can show only Jacob and other pack members her thoughts. Cade can't show anyone his thoughts. So Eila got some of my talent. Which I suppose originally stemmed from my father though... Anyway. It makes sense that only Cade would change."

The sun was rising just then, and I knew word would travel fast about our newest additions to the family. Nick stepped off to call his mom after taking a minute to set me and Marah on the couch, and she was already on her way over with Nick's siblings and his dad. My parents had gotten the word as well, and were speeding home from Denali. They couldn't wait to meet their granddaughter.

They knocked on the door, and Nessie let them in. They looked like they had hurried to get ready to come over here, but I didn't comment on it. Leah came around the corner, and I held up her granddaughter for her.

"Oh," she said. "Nick…" I could hear the tears in her voice. "She's beautiful."

"She has blue eyes," Nick said as his father pulled him into a hug.

Leah came closer, and I slid our sleeping beauty into her grandmother's arms.

"Oh my," she said. "This is surreal. I swear you were just born yesterday…" she trailed off, looking up at Nick.

Nick was hugging Alexis, who had tears in her eyes. "I know," he said. "It's already going by too fast."

Our family arrived one by one. Some people had already seen the other new babies, and I got to see pictures they had taken on their phones. Grant could literally be Liam's twin, and Christine looked as much like Claire as Jayna had.

When my family screeched to a stop in front of our house, my mother about ripped the front door off coming in. My father told her to chill out in Hindi, and she snapped back the equivalent of a fuck you.

Her eyes lit up as she saw the baby in my arms, and I handed Marah to her the way I had Leah. "Oh my," she said, sounding identical to Leah. "She's beautiful," she said.

"She looks like you," my dad said, and I realized he was talking to my mother. "And you Z," he said.

I had always resembled my mother, and I could see the likeness between her and my daughter. "You're right," I said. "But her eyes are Nick's."

My mother handed Marah off to my father, and gave Leah and hug first, and then Nick. "Of course they are," she said. "And how could we ask for anything more beautiful?"

My uncle Mayur was filming the scene. "The Cullens and Denalis wanted a video," he said.

I chuckled. "I'm sure they did."

Just then, I heard two more sets of pounding feet. I smelled Jacob and Cade, and following close behind them were the feather-light steps of Eila. Somebody let them in the door, and my father handed Marah back to me. I held her up for the millionth time that morning.

"Wow," Jacob said. "She looks just like you Zemati."

I laughed, and felt how sore I was. "I think so."

Nick was staring intently at Cade, who I now noticed looked like he had just melted into a pool of his own being. I knew what was happening before he even said anything. I'd seen that look one too many times. "Cade," Nick said. "Really?"

"Dad," Cade said calmly.

"Cade…" Jacob trailed off.

"I definitely just imprinted on Marah."


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

All chatter in the room came to a screeching halt. Jacob cleared his throat. "Of course you did."

Eila came in the door then. "What did I miss?" she asked, concerned by the silence. Nessie walked to her and started explaining quietly.

I looked down at Marah, and saw that her eyes were wide open, and looking in the direction of Cade. I felt her childhood being stolen from me in that instant, but it was bittersweet. I knew that she would always be happy, and what more could I ask for? I hadn't even known this little girl for twelve hours yet, but Cade would give her something that I never could. He could give her what Nick gave me, and I had never been more thankful for him than in that moment.

"Well," I said, finally breaking the silence. "Come here Cade."

He came to me, and fell to his knees in front of me. He was staring at Marah like she was the only thing in the world, and although some part of her was taken from me in that moment, I knew he was giving her so much more. "Do you want to hold her?" I asked.

"Yes," Cade said.

Nick stood up from where he was sitting next to me. "Sit," he said to Cade. "I'm freaking out."

Cade ripped his eyes off of Marah, and looked at Nick. "Sorry," he said.

"Don't be," Nick said. "But sit. I'm scared you'll drop her."

"Never," Cade said, but he took a seat anyway.

I kissed Marah's forehead, and slowly slid her limp form into Cade's waiting arms.

Her little lips smiled, and Cade grinned. She yawned and closed her eyes, tucked into his warm flesh.

Nick was standing by my father now. "I know I told you you'd never understand," my father said. "But I think you do now."

Nick nodded. "I do."

Cade smiled, and looked at his dad. "A lot makes sense now," he said.

Jacob smiled at his son. "I'm glad," he said.

"Alright," Brady said from the corner of the room. "Who else saw this coming?" Everyone looked at him. "Just me?" he said. "Alright then."

Everyone started laughing. "No really," he said a minute later. "Remember how he knocked Zemati out of the way on Thanksgiving?"

"Ha," Cade said. "That _really_ makes more sense now."

Our house phone rang, and Selena answered it. Everyone was talking now, and I was watching Cade hold Marah. "Zemati," Selena said. "It's Jenny."

"Hey Jen," I said, taking the phone from her as she gave it to me. "You're alive!"

"Yes," Jenny said. "But it was looking pretty questionable for a while there."

I laughed. "I know the feeling. That was terrible."

"Totally," Jenny said. I heard a small baby crying from somewhere near here, and I heard Liam shushing what must have been Grant. "Anyway," she said. "We just sent the last of our family in your direction. And as sore and exhausted as I am, I want to meet that baby of yours. It was a girl?"

"Yes," I said. "Marah."

"Gorgeous," she said. She chuckled. "So I don't know how well this is going to go, but can we stop by?"

"Sure," I said. "If you think you can make it."

"Ha," she said. "It'll be interesting to say at the least."

So it was that way that my entire family ended up squeezed into all the corners of our house. Sue and Charlie even brought Billy over. They were getting on in years, but definitely still kicking. People started to leave around nine o'clock. It was Saturday, so no one had school or work, but they had things to do. Jenny fell sound asleep on Liam's shoulder exactly twenty minutes after meeting Marah. Claire was still awake, but she looked pretty tired as well. Jayna and Jason were extremely fascinated with Christine, and Quil had to keep reminding them to be gentle.

I have no memory of the house emptying. I woke up in bed what seemed like minutes after I had noticed that Jenny was asleep, but after checking the clock on the night table, I realized it was nearly noon. Nick was sitting on the bed, rocking a crying Marah. "Hush," he told her, holding him to his chest. He kissed her on the forehead. "Daddy loves you," he said.

My heart melted. Her crying quieted slightly, but she wouldn't be distracted for long. Nick looked over his shoulder at me as I stiffly rolled over. "Hey there," he said over her cries.

"Hi," I said, wincing as I felt my sore middle. I looked down, and realized that I was covered in a damp film from my chest down to my waist. I laughed in shock. "I guess my milk came in."

"You're what?" he said.

"My milk," I said. "For breastfeeding."

"I didn't know you could do that," he said, sounding very surprised.

I laughed. "Nessie didn't either until Eila was born. It's not really milk. It's like a combination of milk and blood I guess."

"Huh," Nick said, rocking a still quietly crying Marah.

"Maybe she's hungry," I suggested. "I could try to nurse her…"

"You know how to do that?" he asked, sounding amazed.

I laughed. "I guess I'm going to figure it out. Help me up would you?"

Nick walked around to my side of the bed, still holding Marah. He gently helped me sit up, and I stretched out my sore muscles. "You going to make it?" he asked as I winced.

"Likely," I said.

I grabbed his pillow and sat it on my lap. I pulled my shirt off, and saw how swollen my breasts looked. They ached a little to be honest. Nick handed me Marah, and slid around behind me. He straddled me from behind, just like he had when I was giving birth.

I put Marah to my chest, and her little mouth tried to find the source of her nourishment. Nick put his arms around me, and gently guided my left breast into her mouth. She latched on, and immediately started sucking. It was the most natural thing in the world for me. I smiled, breathless. "This has got to me the most amazing thing I have ever done," I said.

"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever watched," he told me. He kissed my cheek, and stroked Marah's hair as she ate.

Her childhood was going to be fast. I would never get as much time with her as I wanted, but that was alright. She was going to be beautiful. She was going to be perfect. She was going to be ours. I looked into Nick's eyes, and knew that he was thinking the same thing.

"I'm always going to be in love with you," he told me. "I fall more and more in love every single day.

I smiled. "I'm always going to be in love with you too," I said.

If nothing else remained, our love would be. And there was nothing that was ever going to be better or stronger than that.

We laid Marah back down in her bassinette after I finished nursing her, but the two of us decided to stay up. It was about twelve thirty at this point, and we would want to be able to fall asleep tonight. The nap had been well deserved, but now it was time we settled back into a new normal with our beautiful little Marah.

I was sore, but it was manageable. I noticed that my unchanging body had snapped itself right back into where it was before. Whatever traces of a baby bump I had after giving birth were long gone now. Nick went to make himself lunch, and I told him I was going to take a shower. Marah seemed content in her bassinette, but I knew I would be hurrying through the shower to go check on her. Nick would take care of her.

I enjoyed taking a shower and seeing how good my body looked again. It was beautiful while I was pregnant, but that was a different kind of beauty. I looked straight up sexy now. I laughed at myself. I washed all of my long hair out, and combed it with the comb I left in the shower. I used some scented soap, and towel dried myself off after I got out. I wrapped myself in the towel and walked back to our room.

Nick was sitting on the bed, eating a sandwich, watching Marah sleep.

"Enthralled?" I said quietly, hoping not to wake her.

"Completely," he said. He looked at me all wet, wrapped up in my blue towel. "Although," he said. "You're awfully nice to look at too."

"Oh hush," I said, batting my hand at him with a smile. Once inside our closet, I picked out an outfit that would hug my newly-small body again. Just a dark gray t-shirt and some jeans, but I knew I would rock it. "So how did you finally get Cade to go home?" I asked Nick.

He chuckled. "Well," he said. "I actually didn't. He was here until about two hours ago, but he had patrol. He should be back any minute though. There is no way we are keeping that boy out of here for very long."

He had finished his sandwich by this point, so I came and sat on his lap.

We both looked at Marah, and then at each other.

"Hi there," he said to me, kissing me on the cheek.

"Hello," I said. I turned to kiss him, and I felt how close he could hold me now. I kicked my right leg over the top of him so that I was straddling him. His hands were already greedily grabbing my sides, pulling me closer to him. He wrapped his arm around me tight, so that even I couldn't get free. My wet hair was hanging over his arms, and I played with his hair while he pressed his lips to mine, sealing them shut.

I pulled away first. "Nick," I said, him swallowing the word with his lips before I could even protest. He opened his mouth, pulling mine open with his. Our tongues danced, but I could feel Marah right behind us. "Nick," I said, really pulling away this time. "Our daughter is right here."

He smiled, and he pulled me close. I supposed a hug was okay. "I am so proud of you," Nick said to me.

"What for?" I asked, smelling his soap and absolutely loving it.

"You delivered the most beautiful baby girl. That is something I could never do."

"Mm," I said. "It's what my body was built to do you see."

"No," Nick said. "Even if I could physically have a child, there is no way I am that tough. You were so strong. You just kept going, even when I thought you would have to give up."

I chuckled. "There was no giving up. She was coming out of me whether I was ready or not."

Nick laughed. "I suppose so, but that was still quite impressive. You were only in labor for thirty-five minutes. You beat Nessie's record."

I laughed. "Those thirty-five minutes just about killed me."

He rubbed my back. "I felt so helpless."

I kissed his cheek. "You were," I said. "But you did everything you could. I really couldn't have done that without you."

I climbed off of him, and he helped me turn over so that I was sitting on his lap again. "Look at her," I said, smiling at our sleeping daughter.

Her little body was swallowed by the bassinette. She was flat on her back with her hands above her; her little hands curled into fists. Her face was turned toward us, so we could see her content little smile.

We couldn't stay there forever. We left the door to our room open so we would hear if she woke up or started crying. Cade came back after running patrol, and I did my best to make him feel at home. He had known me my entire life. It only freaked me out a little bit that my daughter had been imprinted on by someone who was technically a little bit older than me.

"How did it go?" I asked him.

"As good as can be expected," he said, and I noticed that he was already taller than me; still going up. "I got a little lost, but I managed. I was out there with Bryce, and he was really good to talk to believe it or not."

I laughed. "I'm sure he was." It might have been a little awkward that Bryce had imprinted on Cade's sister, but he would know exactly how Cade was feeling. I heard Marah's breathing get a little bit faster, but she didn't cry. Nick heard the same thing, and walked into our room. He came out carrying her a second later. She had her head on his shoulder, but her eyes were wide open.

"Well hey there pretty girl," I said. She didn't respond to my words in anyway, but her blue eyes met mine. I chuckled. "She definitely has your eyes," I said to Nick.

"Yes," he said. "And that might be all. But I am perfectly okay with that. God knows I wanted her to look like you even if she was a boy."

I chuckled. "Hey now," I said. "It took two people to make her. I'll bet we find more and more ways she looks like you or acts like you as time goes on."

"Likely," Nick said.

Cade was smiling at Marah. Her little lips smiled at him as well, and I was only a little jealous. Nick handed Marah to me when I reached for her, and I put her on my lap so she would face Cade. Her little body fit right into mine, and I realized that twenty-four hours ago she was in the same position, only her head was facing down, and she was inside of me.

"Hey," I said. "She was inside of me like this twenty-four hours ago."

"Wow," Nick said. "Now I'm even more impressed."

Cade turned to me. "When was the last time you hunted?" he asked.

I gave that a thought. "A while ago," I said. "I felt so massive towards the end of that pregnancy I didn't feel like doing anything. How about you?"

"It's been eight days," he said.

"You're overdue," I told him. I looked at Marah, and though she was growing quickly, she was still so small. I sighed. "And so am I. And this little girl could probably get some use out of some straight blood."

"Well," Cade said. "We can all go together. Someone could always hold her, keep her out of the way I suppose."

"This is true," I said. I shook my head. "Jeez your mom is a beast. She had to hunt for Eila all by herself."

Cade laughed. "She told me once that she just kind of held her away from the flailing animal and killed it with her other hand." He laughed again. "When I was born, she left Eila holding me in the middle of the woods and hauled back an animal for the two of us."

"Wow," I said. "She's got nerve, your mother."

Cade shook his head. "Aw man," he said. "I've got school tomorrow."

"Yuck," I agreed. "But hey," I said. "There's lots of pack member still in school."

Cade shrugged. "Yeah," he said. "And they're making it work."

"We won't let you fall behind," Nick asked. "When is your next patrol?"

"Eight to ten tomorrow night."

"Really?" Nick said. "You're with me. That's a good shift. You get to eat dinner, but you're back before bedtime."

Cade nodded. "Yeah," he said. Marah cooed in my arms, and both Cade and Nick smiled at her.

"So you want to go tonight?" I asked him.

"Yeah," Cade said. "Definitely."

Cade, Marah, and I ran over to his house around dusk. It was pretty cold, and though I could feel how warm Marah was, I still put a coat and hat on her. I didn't want her getting sick or anything. Then again, I didn't think it was in her nature…

Cade held Marah first while I hunted, and then Eila held her when she finished. I was enjoying how free I felt without Marah inside of me, and I was thirstier than I originally thought. Nessie hadn't been hunting in a while either, and both the kids were done before we were. We finished up after only about an hour though.

I heard the running footsteps suddenly, and for one second I thought it was my family. Nessie and I both looked at each other at the same time, and the wind blew in our direction.

They were vampires, and they were most definitely not my family.

Nessie and I jumped in front of the kids, and I was grateful when I noticed that Eila was still holding Marah. They both heard the footsteps now, and Cade took some steps away from his sister. He was shaking, but looked like he was holding it together pretty well. He had a good head on his shoulders at least…

I heard the wolf feet then, and I heard as a howl went up. The rest of the wolves would be here soon, no matter what these vampires wanted. "Stay behind me Eila, protect that baby," Nessie said.

The footsteps got closer, and suddenly I could see them.

There were four of them, looking exactly the way vampires should. Their eyes were black, and I wasn't sure if that made me feel better or worse. These vampires were very pale, but they had a slightly tan tint to their skin, as if they had spent a lot of time in the sun as humans. There was one male who had black hair, and was about five inches taller than me. The other male was about six feet tall, with hair that was streaked with light and dark brown hair. The two females were small, and gorgeous. The one had hair as black as the first male, and was easily an inch shorter than me. The other female was about my height, with hair that was light brown and streaked with flecks of blond. She looked like a classic southern Californian, but the blond in her hair was a little too dark.

"We come in peace," the male with black hair said. He looked like he was about twenty years old, but looks could be deceiving. The wolves were circling us now, and I could see how confused they looked. I spotted Nick, and was relieved by that fact alone. "My name is William," he said. "And I know that you don't believe me, but we aren't here to hurt you."

"I believe you," Nessie said. "But I'm sure you can see why we are so nervous." She gestured behind her, and looked at the other three vampires. They stood in relaxed positions, looking as nervous as I felt. If there was a fight, they would lose, and they knew it. "What can I help you with?" Nessie asked.

"Well," William said. "If you don't mind me asking… What are you exactly?"

Nessie cocked her head at him and smiled. "You don't know?" she asked.

"No," he said.

"Well," she said. "Have you ever heard of the Cullen family?"

"I think so," the taller female said. "But only in passing. My name is Hazel by the way."

"Do explain," William said, and I could see how enthralled he was.

Nessie spoke quickly, explaining who her family was, explaining who she was, explaining who her kids were. Then she explained who I was, and who Marah was. She also explained about the wolves. She spoke fast, but it still took her a good ten minutes to get everything out. The four vampires looked stunned.

"Your story…" The tall, lighter-haired one said. "It is so… amazing. I am Oscar by the way. But they call me Oz."

"Like the wizard?" I joked, finally speaking up.

"Exactly like the wizard," he said.

"I am June," the short, dark –hair one said, but she looked very shy. She kind of hisd behind the dark haired male, and I could tell that they were mates. The other two appeared to be the same way. It was just in the way they stood.

"Anyway," William said. "Now that the formalities are over, I do have to admit that we have been sticking around here for quite some time. We are semi-nomadic vampires, and we were just passing through. But we saw you all out here hunting, and we were amazed. I was so curious, especially, since you, Zemati, appeared to be pregnant." Nessie had already told him our names.

I smiled. "Well until early this morning," I said. "I was pregnant."

"Well look at you go," Hazel said. "You just bounce right back, don't you?"

I laughed. "Yes, something like that."

"I was wondering…" William said. "And we have talked about this… How do you become a 'vegetarian' vampire?"

Nessie chuckled. "Well," she said. "We were born into it actually. But Zemati's parents were not. They live just across town. I'm sure they would be willing to meet you and talk to you about it if you're serious."

William nodded his head slowly, and I could see the age in his eyes. "You see," he said. "We are a very strange case. The four of us were born in Texas in 1918. We went to grammar school together, and were all engaged to be married a week after Oz and I finished attending college. But, like so many others, we were in the wrong place, at the wrong time. We passed a small vampire coven while on a walk late one night, and I'm sure you can guess what happened. The vampire coven bit us with the intention of turning us, not killing us. We do not know why they did that to this day. Our intention has to make sure we do not damn other human beings to this lifestyle, but sometimes we mess up. Distractions come, we have to leave, and three days later, they are just like us," he said. He shook his head. "There is so much killing," he said. "It really takes a toll on a man's conscience."

Nessie nodded. "I'm sure it does," she said. She seemed to think for a little while. "So…" Nessie said. "You loved each other even in mortality."

"Yes," they all four said at the same time, and I giggled a little.

"So like I said," William said. "We are a very strange case."

"You are," Nessie said. "If you'll let us take the kids home first," she said. "Zemati's family would love to meet you. If you're serious about being vegetarians, welcome to the family." She smiled. "You have support in more places than you know."

William looked at the others in his group, and the shy little dark-haired one, June, spoke up. "We're serious," she said. "Or at least I am." She looked at the ground. "A decade ago, I found some of my great-great nieces and nephews. The one girl looked just like my little sister did. Since then, I have never been okay with killing these humans. Everyone has a family. Everyone will be missed by someone."

"That is exactly true," I said. "And that is what I remind myself of every time I think of how much easier killing humans would be."

"Speak of the devil," Nessie said. I followed the direction of her gaze. My family was slowly materializing out of the woods.

William, June, Oz, and Hazel turned to look at the Dapolis as they were approaching. I took the time to give the introductions, and my family started talking with these nomads. I turned to Nessie. "Should we bring the kids home?"

"I was thinking the same thing," she said. She caught Kahini's attention, and told her we were doing. The wolves had phased back at this point, but they were remaining in the shadows mostly.

Cade was holding Marah, and she was sleeping peacefully now. She had been fed, and was completely oblivious to the events around her. "Are you staying at my house tonight?" I asked Cade.

He shook his head. "As much as I'd like to, I have school in the morning, and it'll be a weird day without starting it at someone else's house."

"That's very responsible," I said. "But you know you are welcome anytime. Maybe after you get the hang of things you'll be able to stay over on school nights."

"You know we understand if you want to," Nessie told him.

Cade nodded. "Mom," he said. "We have the best family in the entire world."

She laughed, and we all joined in with him. Nick, Bryce, and Jacob were walking up to us at this point. "We do," she said.

"Way to keep your cool Cade," Jacob said. "I thought you were going to lose it for sure."

Cade scoffed. "Thanks for the confidence Dad." He shrugged his shoulders. "I just figured it would be more reasonable to look as much like a vampire as possible. It made more sense."

"I suppose you're right," Jacob said.

"Having the ability to reason under pressure is a fantastic skill to have," Nick commented.

"You would know, Mr. 911 operator," Cade replied.

It was late that night when our phone rang. I was already in bed, but Nick was still up reading the newspaper. "Hello?" I heard him answer.

I could hear the loud voices on the other line. "Entirely by coincidence," I heard my mother say. "The Cullens are here! After hearing about Marah, they decided they didn't want to wait any longer. Plus, they just recently decided that they are going to be moving to a town called Douglas, in British Colombia. They are going to be house hunting for two weeks, and then moving up there as soon as they find a place that is secluded enough!"

"Really?" I heard Nick say. "That's great! Does Nessie know?"

My mother laughed. "Well they scared her half to death by showing up at her door about an hour ago. She told them they missed all the action, and after they told her about their plans to move, she sent them over here to meet our new family members."

I climbed out of bed so I could talk to my mother. Nick handed me the phone as I walked up, telling my mother goodnight. "So are they going to do it?" I asked her.

"They're going to give it a shot," my mother told me. They are going to be staying with us for a while. We are going to claim them as extended family for now, but they may eventually go live with the Denalis, or possibly the Cullens. I know that Julia and Connor as well as Zach and Andrea are considering moving to Europe in the next couple of years. They may end up going with them if they adjust well to this lifestyle. They have the right mindset, that's for sure. Carlisle says he sees the capability in their eyes."

I was smiling from ear to ear. "It's going to be really nice having the Cullens closer," I said. "Nessie has got to be thrilled."

"Oh she is," my mother said. "She has school tomorrow and stuff, but tomorrow after school she and Jake and the kids are coming over to visit some more. You guys should come over too. And if you don't have too much school tomorrow during the day, come over then too!"

I laughed. "Alright," I said. "But Nick has work tomorrow morning. So it may just be me and baby."

"That'll work," my mom said, and I heard the loud laughter in the background.

I told my mother goodnight, and hung up the phone smiling. "Well," I said. "No one does surprises quite like the Cullens."

Nick chuckled, and closed the paper. We shut off the lights as we went to bed, and as we climbed in, I enjoyed how closely I could lay to him. I was so much more comfortable plastered entirely against his body. It was pretty obnoxious. We got a hungry wakeup call around three in the morning, but it was quickly soothed when I nursed her. She was a fast eater, and Nick stayed up with me while I nursed. He liked to sit behind me and hold her up with his hands. He said it made him feel more attached to the situation.

The next morning, Marah dozed on a blanket next to me while I wrote a paper for English, another one for history, and did some math homework. I watched the two newly posted lectures for all of my classes, but the entire school day only took me about three hours. I was crazy fast, and I liked it.

I packed Eila into her hand-me-down car seat, and got a diaper bag packed up. I brought one of the bottles of blood we had gotten on our hunting trip last night, so I should be good.

Marah totally stole the show when I got to my parents' house. The Cullens were all there, and they were excited. They were giving me hugs, and I handed Marah off to Rosalie immediately. She was passed from hand to hand, and given lots of love and attention. She cried when Connor held her, but she was getting hungry. Esme fed her the bottle I brought, and she fell asleep drinking it. It was adorable.

The nomads, or the Texans as we had decided to call them, were still a little unsure of the whole situation. There were a ton of vampires here, and they seemed a little overwhelmed. Hazel talked to me for a few minutes though, asking me about Marah, and Nick, and about just anything. I saw June talking to Andrea, and I was glad to see that she at least seemed comfortable around her. The older Cullens were talking about a million miles a minute with Oz and William, remembering the earlier part of the twentieth century.

"So what are you guys looking for in a house?" I asked no one in particular, the whole room already kind of looking at me because I was holding Marah again.

"A lot of bedrooms," Esme said. "But mostly seclusion. We can make it work if it is in the right location. We can't make it work if it is in the wrong location."

I nodded. "I get that."

"We need lots of room for sexy Saturdays," Andrea said, and I saw the grin on her face.

I gave her a look. "Sexy Saturdays?" I said with an eyebrow raise.

"Yeah," Rosalie said. "Didn't you hear about this?"

"We all have sex every Saturday. All day long," Jasper said.

I knew I looked as astonished as I felt. "Really?" I said. "For real?"

"For real," Bella said. "If we're being honest, we all just got tired of trying to find privacy. Saturdays seemed to be the day for it, so we just named them sexy Saturdays."

"Don't judge," Edward said, holding up his hands.

I laughed. "Hey," I said. "If it works for you, feel free."

I stayed there the whole day. I had to nurse Marah around three o'clock, but I just stepped into my old bedroom. It was currently used as an extra bedroom, and no one bothered me in there. Jacob, Nick, Eila, Nessie, and Cade all came over together around three-fifteen. The Cullens loved Eila and Cade to pieces, and I don't think I had seen Nessie look so ecstatic in my entire life. When Cade and Nick had to go run patrol, I stayed at the house with everyone else.

They came back right on time, and I gave Marah to Cade after Nick held her for a while. I put my head on Nick's broad shoulder, and looked around at everyone around us. We had all congregated in the living room, and I had never felt more content. My baby was surrounded by people who loved her, and in the more than capable arms of someone who would love her for the rest of eternity. I had the man of my dreams sitting next to me, and the family I loved close, and getting closer every day. The rest of forever was looking happier and happier every day. Nick kissed the top of my head.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," I whispered back.

This was going to be great.

**THE END**


End file.
